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FOREIGN MAGIC 

,JEAN CARTER COCHRAN 




THE OLD WATER-WAYS OF CHINA HAVE AN INTEREST AND 
A CHARM THAT BRING NEW PLEASURES TO THE TRAVELLER 
AT EVERY TURN 



FOREIGN MAGIC 

TALES OF EVERY-DAY CHINA 



BY 
JEAN CARTER COCHRAN 

athbob of "the ranstbow in the rain," 
"nanct's mother," etc. 




> > J 



NEW YORK 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



COPVBIGHT, 1919, 

By MissioNART Eddcation Movemen* 

OF THE UMITBD StaTBS AND CANADA 



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PBINTED ra THE UNITED STATES OF AMBBtCA 



ICI.A515545 
mi 20 1S19 



TO 

s. c. 

r< THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



Not hedged about by sacerdotal rule 

He walks the fellom of the scarred and weak. 

Liberal and wise his gifts; he goes to school 
To justices and he turns the other cheek. 

He looks not holy, simple his belief. 

His creed for mystic visions do not scan; 

The face shows lines, cut there by others' griefs. 
And in his eyes is love of brother man. 

Not self, nor self-salvation is his care. 

He yearns to make the world a summer clime 

To live in; and his mission everywhere 

Is strangely like the Christ's in olden time. 

No mediceval mystery, no crowned, 

Dim figure, halo-ringed, uncanny bright: 

A modern saint! A man who treads earth's ground. 
And ministers to man with all his might. 

— Richard Burton 



IN writing the following sketches the author 
has received help from many sources, for 
which she is very grateful. She wishes to thank 
the editors of the Outlook ^ the Wlissionary Re- 
view of the World, Woman's Work, and the 
Woman's Publication Committee of the Pres- 
byterian Board of Foreign Missions for per- 
mission to reproduce stories that have already 
appeared in their magazines. She also desires 
to express particular gratitude to Mr. Law- 
rence Abbott, without whose encouragement 
and inspiration she would never have dared to 
attempt this little volume. 



vu 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 15 

I The Shadow on the Light of Asia . . 21 

II Weh Sao Tze the Militant .... 35 

III Mr. Chang of the Crystal Spring Vil- 

lage 46 

IV Pere Perrin 57 

V A Chinese Doctor 69 

VI The Incense Burner 92 

VII How Betty Saved the Kiddies . . . 110 

VIII A Gone Goose 119 

IX The Devious Ways of a House-boat . 133 

X Foreign Magic 155 



IX 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Old Water-ways of China . . Frontispiece ^ 

PAGE 

The Road to Feng Ti Fu 32 v 

The Boys from the Feng Ti Fu School . 40 1-^ 

A Fuel Gleaner in a Famine-sti{icken 

Village 64 i 

The Ox in the Village of the Arrogant 

Dragon 72 ' 

The Quiet Garden in A Chinese Courtyard . 93 

In China No One is in a Hurry .... 144 ' 

The Popular Vehicle Holds a Homeward- 
bound Patient 160 ' 



XI 



FOREIGN MAGIC 



FOREIGN MAGIC 



FOREWORD 

SOMEWHERE in China the plains stretch 
mile upon mile, much farther than the eye 
can see. Many days it takes to traverse these 
plains by slow-going native cart, by donkej'', or 
on foot, and the stranger is astonished at the 
nimiberless hamlets and tiny villages which 
come in sight, all so similar, and all so full of 
children. In the springtime the landscape 
seems to smile, for the whole world is dressed 
in shimmering green, and song-birds fly low 
over the tender stalks of grain, while the warm 
sun shines gaily down upon the scene. But 
when the days of autumn arrive, and the crops 
have all been garnered, the sordidness and 
grinding poverty of the land are laid bare, and 
it takes a stout heart and cheerful spirit in the 
traveller to keep him from being depressed 
and burdened by what he sees. 

Somewhere in the heart of this great plain 

15 



16 FOREWORD 

I ■ I 

is hidden a market town which shall be known, 
by way of disguise, as the city of Feng Ti Fu. 
The translation of the real name of this place 
reads like poetry, for it is, "The city that those 
who are far away love." In all the names of 
earth, surely none was ever more inspired nor 
a happier choice than this ! 

Feng Ti Fu is not without natural attrac- 
tions. Through it runs the river, and on either 
side, like giant gateways, stand East and West 
mountains; for at this point the plains are in- 
tersected by ranges of rocky hills. If the book 
of the life of the city could be written, it would 
be one of tears and laughter, but the misery 
would far outweigh the gladness, for a shadow 
falls across the place from West Mountain 
crowned with its Buddhist temple, and the 
shadow of that temple has darkened many lives. 
The fear of death, and of the malice of evil 
spirits, has been responsible for countless 
crimes that have occurred within the city walls 
and out in the rocky caves of the mountain 
side. 

Within recent years a new day has begun 
to dispel the darkness, and though the signs 
of the dawn are faint as yet, a feeling of change 
is in the air. Sounder ideas are taking the 
place of old superstitions, and, under the touch 



FOREWORD 17 

^ . . — . 

of this new life, characters are developing and 
growing, and some who formerly resembled 
the brute beast are beginning to show on their 
faces a livelier intelligence. There are many 
causes at work to make this possible; the de- 
sire for education and for more conveniences, 
and the longing for less poverty and for more 
abundance. But the greatest cause of all is 
to be found in the lives and teaching of a little 
group of strangers from another land who 
have settled down in the country, moved by the 
nitifulness of the need and by the behef that 
in the lowest there is still a spark of the divine 
waiting only to be rekindled. 
The first years of the work of this group 
were marked by privations and hardships that 
others could never imagine, and which must be 
endured to be appreciated. Living in the 
primitive Cottages with thatched roofs and 
rough floors, there were few necessities and 
no luxuries, while the evidences of antagonism 
and even hatred that were met with in the 
streets added to the loneliness and desolation. 
The church was housed in a lowly building 
made over for the purpose, and another equally 
lowly was used for a hospital. In fact, so poor 
was this structure that bits of mud from the 



18 FOREWORD 

r . I 

roof often dropped on the operating table 
while the doctor was working over a patient. 

After sixteen years of earnest effort all this 
is changed; a new hospital stands in a com- 
manding position overlooking the river, and a 
school for boys and another for girls now 
stand as models for the educational system of 
the whole province. Residences have been 
erected, and, by no means least in importance, 
an attractive church has been built, the clock on 
which rings out the hours over the city, the 
first town clock in all that part of China. 

The author of this book was privileged to 
spend a year in China, and visited Feng Ti 
Fu, where she made the acquaintance of some 
of the people mentioned in these stories. Other 
characters and incidents have been gathered 
from reports, letters, and conversations, but 
let readers beware of trying to identify a sin- 
gle person ; their efforts will be futile, since the 
author has allowed imagination to hold full 
sway, and has woven fact and fancy freely to- 
gether in an attempt to make the country and 
people life-like to those who have never seen 
them. 

No one should pick up this book hoping to 
find it a treatise on sociology or philanthropy, 
for it consists of but a few simple stories of the 



FOREWORD 19 



every-day life of some very human people. 
Nevertheless, it is from humble material like 
this that a country's heroes have been made, 
and in the years to come China will say of some 
of them, as Kiphng so proudly sings of Eng- 
land's sons. 

Not in the thick of the fight. 
Not in the press of the odds, 
Do the heroes come to their height 
Or we know the demigods. 

They are too near to be great, 
But our children will understand 
When and how our fate 
Was changed, and by whose hand. 

Our children will measure their worth ; 
We are content to be blind ; 
For we know we walk on a new-born eartHi 
With the saviours of mankind. 



THE SHADOW ON THE LIGHT OF ASIA 

1 THINK a person's religion is like their 
skin; they are born with it and they can- 
not alter it. Besides, the Orientals are happy 
in their religion ; then why under heaven should 
we seek to change it ? I call it giving ourselves 
foolish airs." With the complacent manner of 
one who has put forth an absolutely unanswer- 
able argument, my friend sipped her tea and 
started a lively discussion on world peace with 
her other neighbour. 

"Happy in their religion!" At these words 
the tasteful drawing-room faded away, and I 
ceased to listen to the merry chatter around 
me, while Li Sao Tze's gentle face arose before 
my vision and I lost myself in the thought of 
my days in China. 

Is it mere chance that on leaving the soft 
green shores of Japan, one must sail through 
a yellow sea before one can reach the yellow 
country and meet the yellow people, and must 
the religion be yellow because the skin is, I 

21 



22 FOREIGN MAGIC 

wonder? We had sailed through the Yellow 
Sea on our voyage of discovery, and steamed 
up the river to Shanghai with our Occidental 
eyes wide open to miss no sight, our ears atten- 
tive to miss no sound, and our unwilling noses 
missing no scent of that strange land, for it 
seemed as if even the little breezes smelled 
yellow. 

The tales of our childhood about Topsy- 
Turvy Land came to our minds as our ragged- 
queued rickshamen whisked us around corners, 
and we found to our dismay that we were ex- 
pected to point the way to them, instead of 
their showing it to us. Newcomers must be- 
ware, if they do not want to be landed in some 
unsavoury corner of the native city where no 
word of English is spoken. 

As we had a guide we were ultimately deliv- 
ered in good order at our destination. Our 
first night on Chinese soil was a test as to 
whether we could stand the alarms of life in 
the Interior. We were regaled at dinner with 
stories of the famous Shanghai riot that had 
occurred shortly before our arrival, and also 
with detailed accounts of the massacre that had 
recently taken place in the south. It was all 
part of the day's work to those hardened to the 



THE SHADOW ON ASIA 23 

3 

vicissitudes of life in China, but it stamped it- 
self deeply on our impressionable minds. 

After retiring that night I found that the 
tales to which we had listened still haunted my 
brain, and unable to sleep, suffered in imagina- 
tion all the horrors that had been related. I 
must have been in bed about two hours when 
suddenly I heard shouts in the distance, and 
then what seemed like hundreds of hurrying 
footsteps and the most terrifying shrieks. I 
hastily arose and ran to the window and lis- 
tened, shaking with fear, and fully convinced 
that the rioters were coming, thirsting for 
foreign blood. In intense anxiety I waited for 
the people of the house to sound the alarm and 
call us together to make our escape, but every 
one slept peacefully on, while each moment the 
din grew wilder. Finally, it swept past the 
house altogether. 

"They have gone," I thought, "for some 
larger prey, but they will surely come back." 
I waited in vain for a summons, but as our 
friends did not seem to be at all apprehensive, 
I at last decided to try to sleep. I spent a rest- 
less night, however, and came down to break 
fast in a pensive mood. 

"What was that horrible noise last night?" 
I inquired. "Was it a riot?" 



24 FOREIGN MAGIC 



"No, only a wedding party," my friends 
laughingly replied. 

"A wedding party! What, then, were the 
blood-curdling outcries and discordant wails?" 

"Oh, that was their singing, and their musi- 
cal instruments." 

"Well," I ejaculated fer\^ently, "if that was 
a wedding, may I never hear a riot!" 

In the weeks that followed, we had the di- 
version of watching one of the world's great 
pageants as it passed under our balcony: Chi- 
nese dandies in silks and satins, with the ever- 
present fan held to protect their eyes from the 
piercing rays of a semi-tropical sun; ladies in 
gaily decorated sedan chairs, and women of 
the poorer classes pushing wheelbarrows with 
three or four people in them ; regiments of tall 
Sikhs with the steel flashing in their turbans; 
sailors and marines wearing the uniforms of 
many nations, ashore from the warships that 
lay in the river; lightly clad Lascars, swarthy 
seamen from the merchant ships. There were 
wedding and funeral processions with their 
accompanying din ; one funeral procession took 
an hour to pass, and the glories of the em- 
broidered robes of the Buddhist and Taoist 
priests caused much envy in the mind of one 
spectator. And not the least entertaining part 



THE SHADOW ON ASIA 25 

of the strange sights was a monkey in the 
courtyard across the way. It afforded amuse- 
ment not only to the little Portuguese children 
that owned it, but to all the neighbours as well. 

On one hot morning a little file of rickshas 
drew up at the front door, and there followed 
the usual squabble of liberally paid coolies pro- 
testing over the fare. Too much engrossed 
with the foreign street scene to pay much at- 
tention to the arrival of a few Americans, I 
did not even turn my head until I heard a 
baby's voice at my elbow. 

"Auntie, auntie, here we are!" and on look- 
ing down, I found a mite, all dimples, tugging 
at my skirts. 

Lois was right, there they were, and the 
proper things were said and done — the things 
one always does to a niece whom one has never 
seen before, and to the parents, whom one has 
not beheld for five years, and has travelled half 
way around the world to visit. 

Behind these members of the family stood an 
unassuming woman clad in the blue cotton coat 
and black trousers which was the costume of 
her native town. She waited with a bright 
smile on her face, absorbed in the happiness of 
others, and watching with surprise the demon- 
strative ways of these strange foreigners. At 



26 FOREIGN MAGIC 

last we came to ourselves and Li Sao Tze was 
presented; we liked her from the first for her 
gentle, modest ways, and for her unselfishness. 
It was explained that while we were in the 
mountains she was to serve as amah and baby's 
nurse. 

The family of Li Sao Tze belonged to the 
scholar class, the gentry we would call it, but 
they were in reduced circumstances and glad 
to eke out their income through her labours, 
and they would not "lose face" thereby, as she 
was away from home. Her husband was dead 
and her sons were "ne'er do weels," and we 
thought that it must be a comfort to her to be 
free from them for a season. 

If Shanghai had been a wonder city to us, it 
is hard to imagine what it was to Li Sao Tze. 
Try and realise for yourself what your own 
sensations would be if you had lived in the third 
or fourth century in a small country town and 
were taken, without warning or preparation, to 
visit a modern city with all its conveniences 
and inventions. Fancy your excitement, and 
how you would open your eyes, and what stu- 
pid questions you would ask! 

Not so Li Sao Tze ; she kept her quiet way 
unabashed and apparently unimpressed. Al- 
most without being told she learned how to 



THE SHADOW ON ASIA 27 

r^ 

turn on the electricity, and though her only- 
light at home had been a feeble wick floating 
in oil, she never changed her expression when 
the bright light flooded our rooms. She heard 
the bells ring at the push of a finger and saw 
a servant appear as if by magic. She saw car- 
riages run along the smooth streets without 
horses or men to pull them, whereas, in her na- 
tive town, the roads were full of mud-holes, 
and the elite were carried in sedan chairs, the 
middle-class went on mules, and the poor 
walked. Yet not one of these new-fangled 
things disturbed her Oriental calm or produced 
any signs of amazement. Often I longed to 
break through that outer shell of reserve and 
know the thoughts that stirred below it, but my 
lack of Chinese words, and her idea of good 
breeding, always prevented such intercourse. 

Li Sao Tze was not stupid by any means; 
she went about her duties in a quiet, competent 
way, very different from the rougher country 
women who never could be trained to be good 
servants. It was surprising how softly and 
swiftly she did her work on those little cramped 
feet of hers, for they were not over three inches 
long. Every day throughout that long sum- 
mer in the mountains, we would always meet 
her in the narrow, winding paths, carrying lit- 



g8 FOREIGN MAGIC 

tie Lois. In the evening when we returned 
home after a picnic or a tea-party we would 
find Li Sao Tze at the top of the bungalow 
steps with the child in her arms. She would be 
standing there quietly, looking over the moun- 
tains where range was piled on range towards 
the glories of the sunset beyond. 

In this case truly East and West had met 
and mingled, for the baby's arms would be 
twined tightly around Li Sao Tze's neck, and 
one needed only a quick glance at Li Sao Tze's 
face to see how she regarded her charge. It 
was a pretty picture — the dark impassive Ori- 
ental features and the laughing yellow-haired 
mite, with her pink cheeks and dimples. We 
would explain to Li Sao Tze that with her 
bound feet the baby was too large and too 
heavy for her to carry ; but as soon as our backs 
were turned the little tyrant would say, "Li 
Sao Tze! Bao me!" and that wilhng slave 
would hasten to carry her. A Chinese woman 
can never refuse a child anything, and the ex- 
clamation, "Why, she wanted it!" is sufficient 
excuse for giving a baby anj^thing from a 
banana to a carving knife. 

In August Li Sao Tze came to her mistress 
about a strange lump which had been troubling 
her for some time. "Perhaps Mrs. Scott would 



THE SHADOW ON ASIA 29 

tell Dr. Scott ; they say he is a very clever doc- 
tor, and he would give her some foreign medi- 
cine that would take it away?" 

"But, Li Sao Tze, Dr. Scott would have to 
see the lump before he could give you the medi- 
cine." 

"Oh, I never could let him do that; that is 
not our custom!" Then, with a brighter look, 
she continued, "But I will show it to you, Mrs. 
Scott, and you can tell him all about it." 

It took two months to persuade Li Sao Tze 
to see the foreign doctor. By that time the 
lump had grown considerably and he sadly 
pronounced the word that makes an American 
turn sick and faint. He gently explained to 
her that if she were operated on immediately 
he might save her life, otherwise she could not 
live two years. She took the news very quietly 
and with no sign of fear or emotion. She said 
she would not be operated upon, for her sons 
were bitterly anti-foreign and would never al- 
low it, even if she would consent to it. 

It was a heavy cloud over our happiness to 
feel that this gentle creature was marked for 
such a painful death. Such suffering is bad 
enough in America, but it is infinitely worse 
in China, where the sick have no pity shown to 



30 FOREIGN MA GIC 

them, and the native quacks put the sufferer 
to horrid torture by way of treatment. 

We returned with sad hearts to the inland 
station. We knew that when we arrived Li 
Sao Tze's sons would not permit her to remain 
as amah any longer, much as she would have 
liked to do so. She had shown strange con- 
fidence in being willing to go away with us at 
all, and had not even taken some earth with 
her from her native town, as the other amah 
had done, to mix in her tea to keep her from 
homesickness and the dangerous feng shut 
(evil spirits) of a strange place. When we 
reached our destination it turned out as we had 
feared. Li Sao Tze was forced to give up her 
position; her gentle sway was over, and then 
began a reign of terror for us under Weh Sao 
Tze, the Militant. 

Li Sao Tze continued to come to do our sew- 
ing, and we saw her nearly every day. Very 
shocked was she over Weh Sao Tze's rough 
ways, and she would reprimand her for her 
coarse language to the children. She came 
regularly to the women's meetings, and would 
repeat the verses so sweetly and so understand- 
ingly that her teachers were sure she was a 
true Christian in her heart, though she dared 
not admit it on account of the harsh attitude of 



THE SHADOW ON ASIA 31 

her sons. Of all the hymns she liked best to 
sing "Jesus Loves Me." "For it rests my 
heart," she said. Poor Li Sao Tze! It might 
well rest her heart, for very little love had she 
known from the day she was born "only an un- 
welcome girl" up to this time when her sons 
grudged even food to her. Over her cradle 
had been sung the usual Chinese lullaby, 

If a boy is born, in a downy bed 

Let him be wrapped in purple and red; 

Apparel bright and jewels bring 

For the noble child who will serve the king. 

If a girl is born, in coarse cloth wound. 

With a tile for a toy, let her lie on the ground ; 

In her bread or her beer, be her praise or her blame. 

And let her not sully her parents' good name. 

Yet Li Sao Tze's lot was only the common 
one of Chinese women. One day she failed 
to appear at the Women's Class, or for the 
sewing. When she had been absent for two 
or three days, Mrs. Scott inquired about her 
from a neighbour who informed her that Li 
Sao Tze was ill. She hastened to see her and 
found the poor woman so very ill that she sent 
immediately for the foreign doctor, who pro- 
nounced the malady to be typhoid fever. He 
prescribed some remedies and tried to persuade 
Li Sao Tze's sons to take her to the foreign 



32 FOREIGN MAGIC 

n 

hospital, where she could have proper treat- 
ment, but they would not listen to him and, as 
soon as his back was turned, threw the medi- 
cine out and called in a native quack. 

Daily the foreigners visited the wretched 
hovel which Li Sao Tze called home, bringing 
soup and medicine. They always found the 
house filled with a crowd of curious neighbours 
talking at the top of their lungs, and each one 
suggesting some peculiar or deadly mixture — 
a truly restful atmosphere for a fever patient. 
Li Sao Tze bore it all with her usual patience 
but grew gradually weaker. At length one 
night she was very much worse and one of her 
sons climbed on the roof of the house, while 
the other went out on the mountain side to 
represent her spirit. The son on the roof 
would call to the spirit on the mountain to re- 
turn, and the son on the mountain would cry in 
a weird falsetto, "Coming, coming!" and all the 
while Li Sao Tze lay below and listened. 

The next day Li Sao Tze's mistress found 
her excited out of her former calm. Amidst the 
noise and confusion the sufferer clutched her 
friend's hand and whispered that her sons 
thought that she was going to die and so they 
had threatened to carry her out on the moun- 
tain side, as her spirit would haunt them if 




AUTUMX SHADOWS ON AN ANCIENT ROAD 



THE ROAD TO FENG TI FU, 
THE CITY THAT THOSE WHO 
ARE FAR AWAV LOVE 




THE SHADOW ON ASIA 33 

I 

she died in the house. Mrs. Scott knew that if 
they did this she would probably be torn 
in pieces by wild dogs. She did her best to 
reassure Li Sao Tze, but there was nothing 
which she could do to prevent such cruelty, for 
the sons had absolute power, and could have 
caused the death of the foreigners if they had 
interfered with their plans. Mrs. Scott came 
home heavy-hearted. I wonder if any one 
would blame her for failing to see any happi- 
ness in the Taoist religion on that day ? 

The suspense continued for several days, 
and as we lay on our comfortable beds at night 
listening to the shrill autumn wind howling 
down the hillside, we were haunted by thoughts 
of the awful fate hanging over our gentle Li 
Sao Tze. We would shiver to think that at 
that very moment she might be out in the cold 
alone. Fortunately she rallied tow^ards the last, 
and then passed away suddenly before her sons 
could execute their designs. The Christian 
ceremony so well suited to Li Sao Tze's quiet 
spirit was not permitted ; instead, the wild cry 
of the hired mourners, the feasting, the burning 
of paper money, and other rites of a Chinese 
funeral were her lot. But we drew a sigh of re- 
lief that her heart was rested at last and freed 
from further sufferings. 



84 FOKEIGN MAGIC 

I I 

Now that the long spring evenings have 
come, Li Sao Tze's daughter-in-law suddenly 
stops in the middle of her gossiping with the 
other women of the courtyard and says with a 
laugh, *'Well, I must be off to wail a wail or 
two on my mother-in-law's gi-ave." With a 
bowl of food in her hand for the departed spir- 
it, she goes out on the mountain side where Li 
Sao Tze sleeps, and makes the soft spring 
night hideous with those blood-curdling wails 
so heartrending to a stranger, imtil he realises 
that such mourning is purely perfunctory. In 
China comedy and tragedy walk ever hand in 
hand. 



II 

WEH SAO TZE THE MILITANT 

ONE beautiful afternoon in late October 
the tiny living-room of our Chinese house 
was flooded with sunshine which touched the 
soft red-stained walls and the vases of gay- 
chrysanthemums that stood in every nook and 
corner. Through the casement window other 
chrysanthemums shyly peeped, as if standing 
on tiptoe in their garden bed, full of curiosity 
to see what their comrades were doing within. 
, After a two weeks' trip in a cramped house- 
boat, these surroundings seemed spacious in- 
deed, so in deep content with our new environ- 
ment, we sank into the comfortable armchairs. 
Then suddenly our Eden was invaded; we 
heard the clump, clump of a springless bound- 
foot in the courtyard outside, the bang of a 
door, and then the voice of our hostess saying, 

"Weh Sao Tze, this is my mother-in-law 
and my sister-in-law from America." 

On looking up I beheld the tallest, gauntest 
Chinese woman I have ever seen, making deep 

35 



36 FOREIGN MAGIC 

ceremonial bows before us. Now mothers-in- 
law are held in great honour in China, but even 
in her desire to do respect to the aged foreign 
lady, Weh Sao Tze could not repress her con- 
sternation. 

"Cannot they speak one word, not one little 
word?" she asked. 

The pity and contempt in her voice needed 
no interpreter, though her language might. 
All our little store of learning seemed to be 
stripped from us, and for the moment this 
crude woman was a sage compared to our- 
selves. Having once heard Chinese spoken, 
one forever after holds any person in venera- 
tion who has mastered its intricacies — no mat- 
ter if that individual, like Weh Sao Tze, had 
been born to it. 

All this time Weh Sao Tze was bowing be- 
fore us like an automaton, and in her awkward- 
ness she apparently filled the tiny room. She 
had attempted to freshen her blue coat and 
untidy hair to do honour to the foreign ladies, 
but her unkemptness beggared description. 

After the usual polite question to the moth- 
er-in-law as to her honourable age, the excla- 
mation, "Why, I thought you were a great 
deal older !" was in order. Then the names and 
ages of the lady's sons were investigated and 



WEH SAO TZE 37 

commented on, and congratulation given upon 
her "great happiness." At last Weh Sao Tze's 
hostess gave her a decided hint to withdraw, 
and still shaking her head and muttering be- 
low her breath, "They can't speak a word, not 
a single word," she left us. 

Immediately on Weh Sao Tze's disappear- 
ance the room seemed to regain its normal size, 
and we drew a sigh of relief to think that, for 
the time at least, the ornaments were intact. 
Turning to my sister-in-law with deep feeling, 
I exclaimed, "Who is Weh Sao Tze, and where 
did you collect such a wild specimen?'* 

Laughingly she replied, "You ought to have 
seen her when she was first caught — fresh from 
the country. She is to be our amah this win- 
ter." 

"That's a pity," I murmured. "What a 
suffragette she would make ; everything would 
have to give way before her convictions." 

"Yes, she is really the man of the family, 
and manages her husband and sons like a gen- 
eral. It is hard for us to realise what heathen- 
ism really is until we encounter people like her. 
She had no idea of the difference between 
right and wrong; she informed me quite frank- 
ly, in fact, that the only harm in lying was in 
being found out. She has had twenty children, 



38 FOREIGN MAGIC 

but only three are with her. In a famine year 
she left one. baby girl under a tree to die of ex- 
posure and another one she sold for a coat. 
She told me all this as though it was an every- 
day occurrence, as, alas, it is in this city! She 
was quite surprised when I exclaimed in my 
horror over her tale. 

"But in the last two years she has seen a 
great light and is struggling hard to overcome 
her fearful gusts of temper and other vices," 
my sister-in-law continued. "You would re- 
spect her more if you knew her temptations. 
She was admitted to the church this autumn 
in the hope that its support would be of help." 

"I can easily see that life would never be 
monotonous in Weh Sao Tze's vicinity," I re- 
plied. And it never was. 

It was Christmas time before Weh Sao Tze 
really mastered the rudiments of housework; 
by that day she had learned the surprising facts 
that sheets belonged next to the mattress and 
not on top of the spread, that even husband 
and wife might not take a bath in the same 
water and, more astonishing yet, that the dish 
pan was not the usual place to brush one's 
teeth. Words fail me to tell of the peace and 
quiet that descended upon us at night when 
she had returned to the bosom of her own f am- 



WEH SAO TZE 39 

I — ■ ■ ■■ ■ ■- — - — ' — ^ 

ily. Often I wondered if her husband enjoyed 
the blessed quiet of the day as we did the still- 
ness of the night. 

Christmas was to be a gala-day for the Chris- 
tians and a feast was to be served for them in 
the new foreign house. The Boys' School had 
prepared an entertainment for the evening 
which was considered the social event of the 
winter, as the head official and his wife were 
invited and tickets were in great demand. 

Great was Weh Sao Tze's excitement. She 
had already begun to have more regard for 
her personal appearance; fewer straws from 
her rough bed were to be seen sticking to her 
hair, and her coat was evidently washed at least 
once a month, but for Christmas day she really 
outshone herself. She embroidered a new hat 
and gay shoes, washed and starched her coat, 
and really was an example of what soap and a 
little — a very little — ^godliness can do. From 
that day forward it was interesting to see Weh 
Sao Tze cleansed and brushed, with her Bible 
and hymn-book tied up in a gaily coloured 
handkerchief, and her two boys, also much 
brushed and washed, beside her on the way to 
church. 

One of the duties of the amah was to light 
our bedroom fires before we arose in the morn- 



40 FOREIGN MAGIC 

ings. It seemed to me that I had just fallen 
asleep on Christmas Eve, when I heard a rat- 
tle and bang at the stove and the sound of a 
roaring fire just built. The house was dark, 
and there was not a sign of dawn, but I had no 
Chinese words in which to demand an explana- 
tion; so I lay still awaiting developments. Soon 
from the distance I heard the master of the 
house approaching, and I listened to him or- 
dering Weh Sao Tze away in no uncertain 
tones. On inquiry I found that it was only 
half -past two, but Weh Sao Tze had no clock, 
and in her zeal had decided that now it must 
be morning. Three different times did she 
start those fires, until at last in self-defence, at 
six o'clock in the morning, we let her have her 
way. Do you wonder that some people think 
that by sheer perseverance the East will con- 
quer the West? 

The day passed off with much festivity. The 
boys outdid themselves as shepherds and wise- 
men; the kids, which they carried in lieu of 
lambs, bleated plaintively the while, giving a 
touch of realism to the scene. That evening, 
weary of our part as hosts, we slipped off our 
best Chinese coats and our formal bows, and 
looked forward to a refreshing sleep. Alas, 
and alack, it was not to be, for our picturesque 




THE BOYS FROM TIIK FENG TI FU SCHOOL LIFT THEIR 
SKIRTS DAINTILY TO AVOID THE BIUD OF THE ROUGHLY 
PAVED STREET AS THEY MARCH TO CHURCH 



WEH SAO TZE 41 

thatched roof caught fire from a defective 
stovepipe, and Christmas night was spent in 
watching our precious belongings ascend in the 
form of smoke. 

Weh Sao Tze performed wonderful feats of 
valour in these exciting hours. She picked up 
treasures of silver and jewelry in fire-menaced 
rooms and carried them to their rightful own- 
ers, which was a harder strain on her than sav- 
ing them. The report circulated that she had 
actually carried a bureau from one room to an- 
other; and, last but not least, she found the 
table boy looting the aforesaid bureau, duly 
reported him, and he was forthwith dismissed. 
For days afterwards her star was decidedly in 
the ascendant ; the Chinese took pleasure in re- 
peating all the slight symptoms of honesty ever 
observed in her family, and her praise was in 
everybody's mouth. 

My sister-in-law said to me in triumph, 
"What if she is awkward? She moved my bu- 
reau." 

And I was forced to reply, "Strength goes 
further than gracefulness when it comes to 
moving bureaus. I'm glad she has muscle, for 
I am afraid her manners will always lack the 
repose that marked the Revere, or was it the 
De Vere family?" 



42 FOREI GN MAGIC 

Sad to relate, however, toward spring Weh 
Sao Tze's star began to wane. Mr. Dooley 
wisely maintains that a "hero should be shot in 
the act." Rumours of petty thefts came from 
time to time, but it was her temper that 
brought matters to a climax. Her disposition 
and that of the new table boy were not compat- 
ible, and that is putting the case mildly. Weh 
Sao Tze realised her failing and really tried 
very hard to overcome it, but day by day the 
struggle grew more severe, and her angry voice 
could be heard over the entire compound and 
down the street. At length, after having given 
her about a dozen last chances, the crisis came 
and she was dismissed. She packed her things 
and withdrew stormily, but as she left, she 
turned to the master of the house and said in a 
queer, stifled tone, 

"Doctor Scott, you will always look after my 
boys, will you not?" 

A little puzzled by the sudden change of 
manner, the master promised and she departed. 

Soon the table boy had his dismissal, too, but 
before he left all the silver had to be counted. 
According to Chinese custom, he had been put 
in charge of the dining-room, and if anything 
were lacking he was responsible and was re- 
quired to replace the missing article. Knives, 



WEH SAO TZE 43 

forks, and spoons were carefully gone over, 
and eight solid silver forks were not to be 
found. The boy asked permission to search 
the premises, which was granted, and with the 
cook and the gatekeeper as witnesses, he start- 
ed his quest. First the compound was examined 
with no result; then the house, and in a stove 
stored in the attic, close to the door of Weh Sao 
Tze's room, the forks were found at last. 

Their disappearance will always be a mys- 
tery. The boj^ may have taken them and put 
them there to throw suspicion on Weh Sao Tze, 
or she may have done it to get the boy into 
trouble, or have hidden them there in the hope 
that she herself might some day have a chance 
to smuggle them out of the house. Even those 
familiar with involved Chinese reasoning have 
had to give up this riddle. The news of the 
theft and the subsequent find spread like wild- 
fire, and was soon known throughout the city. 

That evening was the first peaceful time in 
weeks; only Solomon, who had some experi- 
ence with women's tempers, or any soldier who 
has been within sound of the incessant firing of 
big guns, can appreciate what the surcease 
meant. 

About nine o'clock, however, Weh Sao Tze's 
little boy appeared and asked the doctor to go 



44 FOREIGN M AGIC 

immediately, as his mother was very ill. The 
doctor was appalled, for he guessed in a mo- 
ment what it meant. She had taken opimn "to 
save her face," and to throw the blame on our- 
selves or on the table boy. 

It was a night of terrible suspense. The 
thought that any human being should come to 
such a pass through us made us heart-sick. Be- 
sides which it was famine year, and anti- foreign 
feeling was always smouldering, ready to leap 
forth and annihilate us at any moment. 
Through the long hours the doctor worked des- 
perately. He found Weh Sao Tze had taken a 
large dose, though she denied it, and only to- 
wards morning did he see signs of hope. At 
breakfast time he returned utterly exhausted, 
leaving Weh Sao Tze sufficiently recovered to 
be treated by his assistant. 

The most amazing thing to us was to find 
that for once Chinese opinion was with the for- 
eigner. Usually when a person endeavours to 
commit suicide, the other person involved is 
blamed whether guilty or not, but this time aU 
the street condemned Weh Sao Tze. The 
Christians among them shook their heads in 
horror and said : 

"We have never heard of a Christian trying 
to kill herself before," 



WEH SAO TZE 45 

Now arose the question as to how to disci- 
pline Weh Sao Tze. The church could not 
overlook such unseemly conduct on the part of 
a member, yet the leaders feared that if she 
were punished, with the weight of public opin- 
ion against her, she might again seek to destroy 
herself. It was finally decided to suspend her 
from membership for a few months. At the 
next communion service a very chastened Weh 
Sao Tze attended; she could not, of course, 
take part in the Sacrament, but when the con- 
gregation bowed their heads for the Lord's 
Prayer, she whispered to her old mistress who 
knelt beside her, 

"Mrs. Scott, may I repeat 'Our Father,' if 
I say it very, very softly?" 

So one more penitent added her voice to the 
thousands who through the ages have sought 
forgiveness. Such was Weh Sao Tze; surely 
she was "ower bad for blessing, and ower gude 
for banning," like Rob Roy. 



Ill 

MR. CHANG OF THE CRYSTAL SPRING 

VDXAGE 

A GREY evening had settled on the vil- 
lage of the Crystal Spring. There had 
been a soft drizzle all day and even the Crystal 
Spring lay deep in mud and so belied its name. 
There was, in fact, nothing much but mud to 
be seen from the narrow streets where the little 
pools of yellowed water stood to the walls of 
the houses that were plainly built of no other 
material than mud. And looking out into the 
twilight over the fields, the country, also, pre- 
sented the same monotonous, muddy-brown 
tint. 

Though the Chinese are a good deal like 
hens in their attitude of mind towards water in 
general and rain in particular, this evening the 
weather had failed to keep them indoors, for 
had not the village schoolmaster promised to 
tell them many wonderful things of the golden 
age of China when the sages walked the land 
and were able to converse, not only with human 

46 



MR. CHANG 47, 

beings, but with the fairy folk? As every in- 
telligent person knows, in those extraordinary 
days the animals talked not only with each 
other, but with men and women. The village 
necromancer claimed that they did it yet, and 
he told how a fox had come into a lonely house 
not many li away and, turning itself into a cry- 
ing child, wrought much mischief until they 
called him in and he frightened the fox away. 
To the initiated, the moral of this tale is plain; 
it behooved one to keep on good terms with the 
necromancer, and to undertake nothing with- 
out his counsel. 

To-night the schoolmaster looked over his 
little audience of men and boys, wondering 
which story to tell them. They waited in a re- 
spectful silence, for he had taken his degree, 
and the only person in the village who did not 
stand in awe of him was his wife. If Mr. Chang 
had known Greek, his sympathy would have 
been drawn to Socrates and his home life. 

Slowly he began : "^ons ago, almost at the 
dawning of our golden age, there lived on the 
edge of a lotus stream a mussel contented and 
happy. One spring morning when the apricots 
were in bloom, tempted by the beauty of the 
day, he went out on the river bank to sun him- 
self. A bittern, which was passing by, per- 



48 FOREIGN MAGIC 

I ———————1 

ceived the mussel, and with none of those cour- 
teous ceremonies customary in polite society, 
pecked at the wary shellfish. The mussel, real- 
ising that he who hesitates is lost, wasted no 
time but nipped the bird's beak. The bittern, 
surprised and frightened, exclaimed, 'If you 
do not let me go to-day, and if you refuse to let 
me go to-morrow, there will be a dead mussel/ 
His would-be victim rejoined, *If I stay in- 
doors to-day, and if I don't come out to-mor- 
row, there surely will be a dead bittern!' " 

Suddenly at this climax a wild face was 
thrust into the door of the schoolroom and an 
excited voice shouted, "There is a foreign devil 
arrived at the inn, and you had better all be 
quick, for we think he is going to undress !" 

Magic surely cannot have disappeared from 
China ; the speed with which the room was emp- 
tied of all but the schoolmaster and the necro- 
mancer was simply miraculous. The necro- 
mancer felt it incumbent on his dignity to move 
more slowly; the schoolmaster, who was at 
heart a gentelman, turned towards his home. 
He would call later with ceremony when the 
rude villagers had left. Curiosity soon got the 
better of the necromancer, however, and mur- 
muring to himself, "I have heard it said that 
these foreigners have a hole in their chest 



MR. CHANG 49 

f 1 

through which a stick is run by which they are 
carried by coolies; I must see if it is true," he 
turned and hurried to the inn. 

The scene at the inn was amusing enough; 
the doors and windows were full of heads, and 
those who had a few cash with which to buy tea 
had even entered the house itself and were 
drinking, while their eyes seemed glued on the 
unfortunate foreigner. The inn was a poor 
place ; the only thing which could be said in its 
favour was that it was dry. It consisted of one 
long room where all the guests ate, dressed, and 
slept. At one end was a fire of stalks burning ; 
there was no chimney for the smoke to escape, 
so the foreigner sat beside the blaze with the 
tears running down his face from the suffocat- 
ing smoke, trying in vain to get dry. He had 
removed his coat, which was dripping wet, and 
beside him on the floor lay a bicycle covered 
with the all-prevailing mud. 

Even the man's sense of humour had been al- 
most washed away, but when he saw the amaze- 
ment on every countenance as he started to 
clean his wheel, he could not repress a smile. 
He had been forced to walk a long distance on 
account of the rain, and the consequence was 
that none of the Chinese knew what the bicy- 
cle was for, so they kept at a safe distance from 



50 FOREIGN MAGIC 

it. As he spun each wheel around thought- 
fully, the eyes of the crowd grew as large as 
saucers. One of them whispered, "It's a new 
kind of gun!" Some of them put their fingers 
in their ears expecting a loud report; others 
withdrew to a still greater distance. Nothing 
happened, however, and at that moment the 
necromancer entered and speedily drew his own 
conclusions; this was evidently some foreign 
magic, and it was clearly to his advantage to 
stand in with the foreigner and divide the 
profits. 

"You have come a long road to-day?" he 
said, going directly up to the foreigner. 

*'Yes," rephed the man, "one hundred li/' 
j (About thirty miles.) 

"Ha! I was right," thought the necroman- 
cer. "It is magic indeed. No man could walk 
or be carried by coolies a distance like that in 
such weather." 

So he asked still another question, "Then the 
coolies did not carry you by means of the pole 
stuck through yom* chest?" 

The foreigner was puzzled ; then he remem- 
bered the ancient rumour about the foreigners 
and replied, "No, I rode this wheel." 

The necromancer was dazed, but by this time 
the crowd had grown bolder and felt like ask- 



MR. CHANG 51 

ing a few questions on their own account. 
They drew closer in a smaller circle and a per- 
fect volley of questions followed : "Where was 
he from?" "What was his name?" "How did 
he button his collar?" "What was his vest 
for?" 

Finally, weary of responding to so much in- 
sistent curiosity, and remembering his purpose 
in coming, the stranger thought that it was his 
turn to lead the conversation. Turning to the 
necromancer, he said, "I have come to your vil- 
lage to tell you about one of our sages that 
lived many years ago." The people, however, 
were too interested in the present to stop to 
hear past history and they would not listen. 

Then a bright idea struck the traveller. He 
said, "I see that this inn room is very large. I 
will ride this wheel around the place for twenty 
minutes and let you see how it works, if after 
I have finished you will promise to listen to me 
for twenty minutes." 

This proposition appealed to his audience 
and a space was quickly cleared. Amid the 
"Ahs!" and "Ehs!" of the crowd, he mounted 
the wheel and rode around and around for a 
long twenty minutes ; then he dismounted, say- 
ing, "Now it is my turn to talk," and he began 
to tell his story. True to their bargain, the 



52 FOREIGN MAGIC 

Chinese listened quietly, interrupting only with 
a question now and then, so that they might 
fully understand. 

After he had concluded his story, a number 
of the curious ones bought his tracts and copies 
of the gospels, and one old man asked, "How 
long ago did you say this good man lived?" 

"Over nineteen hundred years ago," the for- 
eigner replied. 

The old man looked very sad. *'And you for- 
eigners have known this glad news for nineteen 
hundred years, and have only just come to tell 
us about it now! I cannot understand that." 

Some of the more intelligent of the group 
lingered for a few moments, but it was grow- 
ing late and they at last said a reluctant good- 
bye. With a weary sigh the foreigner turned 
to undress, when he heard a quiet voice behind 
him say, "Good evening, honourable sir, may 
I ask your revered name?" 

On looking around, he beheld the village 
teacher, Mr. Chang, making deep bows of 
greeting. Snatching his spectacles from his 
eyes to show that he knew the rules of Chinese 
etiquette, the stranger replied, with an equally 
deep bow, "My humble name is Doctor Scott." 

"May I also inquire your lofty longevity?" 
continued the teacher. 



MR. CHANG 53 

"My years are few and small; I am only 
forty," replied Dr. Scott. 

"Ah!" exclaimed the other, "I thought you 
were a gi-eat deal older. Now will you kindly 
inform me the name of your renowned coun- 
try?" 

"The name of my country is America." 

At the word "America," Mr. Chang's face 
brightened visibly. "Why that is the country 
of Washington and Lincoln," he said joyfully. 

Interested at once, Dr. Scott invited him to 
be seated, and inquired where he had heard of 
Washington and Lincoln. The teacher eager- 
ly explained that when he had gone to Nan- 
king to pass his examination for his degree, he 
had met a foreigner at the door of the examina- 
tion hall who had sold him a book containing 
the lives of Washington and Lincoln. 

"They were gi-eat and good men. Could 
you tell me more about them?" he asked. 

Very gladly Dr. Scott did so, and finished by 
saying, "Washington and Lincoln were true 
lovers of freedom and of theu* fellowmen, but 
their ideas were received from a still greater 
teacher who taught nineteen hundred years ago. 
Let me read you what he says," and draw- 
ing the Gospel of St. John from his pocket 



54 FOREIGN MAGIC 

he read, "And ye shall know the truth and the 
truth shall make you free." 

"Yes," said the teacher, "those are wise 
words ; that is the kind of freedom we need in 
China. Will it weary you too much to tell me 
about this very wise man?" 

Delighted at this wonderful opportunity, 
Dr. Scott told him about that life which was the 
most perfect of all lives, and the teacher eager- 
ly drank in every word. At length he rose to 
go, saying he would return in the morning to 
hear more. Sadly Dr. Scott explained that he 
had to hurry on at daylight to see a dying 
friend, but he gave the teacher a book of the 
Gospels, and promised to return at some future 
time. 

It was now late, and very softly Mr. Chang 
stole through the deserted street and quietly 
opened the door of his rude home, hoping not 
to disturb his sleeping spouse. The hope was 
vain; she had lain awake and full of protest. 
He was greeted with questions such as, "Where 
in the world have you been ? A pretty hour this 
to be coming in! What will the neighbours 
say?" 

"A good deal," the poor teacher thought, 
"if they could hear you talk," but he wisely re- 
plied, "I have been to the inn and talked to the 



MR. CHANG 55 



foreigner, and he told me a most wonderful 
thing about a sage who came to earth to teach 
us to love everybody — our neighbours, and 
even strangers." 

"Foolish words they were ! Why, think what 
a difference it would make if I should love 
Wang ]Mah!" and turning herself scornfully 
in bed, she went soundly to sleep. 

What a difference indeed ! His wife's dailv 
battles with Wang JNIali were the scandal and 
excitement of the whole village; combat was 
waged from dawn to dewy eve, year in and 
year out. Mrs. Chang had the sharper tongue, 
but Wang Mah reviled more effectively, and 
could scream louder. By a course of watchful 
waiting, the former often got in the last word 
when the latter had screamed herself hoarse. 
For these women to love one another would be 
restful and beautiful beyond his wildest hope. 

Having assured himself that his wife was 
really asleep, Mr. Chang sat down by the little 
flickering lamp and began to read his new book. 
Thoughtfully and slowly he read it in order to 
comprehend the wonderful story. Not once 
did he look up until a faint streak of dawn re- 
minded him that he must retire, if he wished 
any peace for the next fortnight. 

It was a very much puzzled necromancer 



56 FOREIGN MAGIC 

i' ^^ 

who arose on the next morning, pondering over 
the follies of foreigners in general and this one 
in particular ; to have perfectly good magic at 
one's command and fail to make a profit from 
it, was worse than foolish ; it was madness. 

OMrs. Chang, too, was very much disturbed 
by the foreigner's visit. Surely he had be- 
witched her husband. Loud was her lamenting 
over the wasted oil; the long day through she 
could talk and think of nothing else. But all 
day long the teacher did not hear her, for his 
thoughts were elsewhere following his newly 
found Master through the fields of Galilee, and 
ever in his ears rang the words, "And ye shall 
know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free." 



ly 

PERE PERRIN 

THREE ravens flew overhead, their black 
wings casting a sinister shadow over the 
land; suddenly, with hoarse croaks, they 
wheeled and descended on a brown field which 
showed not even a blade of grass where once 
there had been verdant crops. 

"If our friends, the ravens, find food to eat 
in this forlorn country, it is more than we shall 
do, Pere Perrin." 

Pere Perrin shook his head sadly. "'Now I 
know what 'the abomination of desolation' 
means, Pere Le Brun. I always used to won- 
der about it. Look, we are coming to the 
Chang village ; we shall soon see what our poor 
children are suffering here." 

Slowly and footsore they plodded to the lit- 
tle hamlet, sorrowful because of the sights they 
had seen, and the stories they had heard. Pere 
Perrin fingered his rosary and his lips moved 
constantly, though no sound escaped them. 

67 



58 FOREIGN MAGIC 

Pere Le Brun knew that he was praying for 
his Hock. 

For fifty years these two good Fathers had 
lived in China; they had studied at the same 
seminary in France and had sailed on the same 
ship to the Far East. The result of this daily 
and hourly companionship was that, as Pere 
Le Brun used laughingly to say, "We even 
think the same thoughts; we have no need to 
talk." 

They had often seen destitution. Even in 
good years, the streets were full of hungry peo- 
ple, hut in the past summer there had been 
floods that broke all records, and during the 
winter came the most appalling famine that 
they had ever known. With the February 
cold, terrible rumours reached them of the con- 
ditions in their country parishes, so they had 
decided to make a tour of inspection to see 
what could be done. The results had confirmed 
their worst fears, and Pere Le Brun noticed 
that Pere Perrin seemed to age greatly from 
day to day. 

On the outskirts of the village thej^- met an 
old man in a single ragged garment ; his teeth 
chattered when the cold wind struck him. At 
first they did not recognise him, but when he 
approached them and began to speak, they 



FERE FERRIN 59 

saw to their consternation that it was Chang, 
the head man of the hamlet, who had been a 
prosperous, well-dressed farmer when last they 
had seen him. Even in his misery he did not 
forget his native courtesy. *'Ah, good Fathers, 
are you out in the country?" (It is always 
proper in China to ask an obvious question by 
way of salutation.) 

"Yes, Mr. Chang, we are visiting our hungry 
sheep. But where are your doors and windows, 
and where are the roofs of your houses?" 

"The hungry wolf. Fere Ferrin, has come 
and eaten them all," he replied. 

It was easy to see that gi-im want was stalk- 
ing through the village. A crowd of hungry, 
gaunt people soon gathered, clad in rags, and 
with the look of famished animals. It was a 
subdued and orderly group, however ; no dem- 
onstration of suffering was made, and only 
dumb curiosity and wonder were shown. They 
had been a quiet, respectable people in their 
prosperity, and they were equally peaceful in 
their adversity. A few scrawny little hands 
tugged at the skirts of the Fathers' gowns, for 
the children remembered the sweetmeats that 
these friends always carried for them at other 
visits. The Fathers had not forgotten the little 
ones, and they were soon munching solemnly. 



60 FOREIGN MAGIC 

Pere Perrin turned again to Mr. Chang. "I 
see there are no pigs or dogs in sight. Are they 
all gone, and what are you living on?" 

"The scum from the ponds and the bark 
from the trees will have to keep us until next 
harvest," was the reply. 

The kindly priest groaned, and drawing a 
purse from his gown, opened it and extracted 
a few Mexican dollars. "Take these, !Mr. 
Chang, and buy food for the villagers and your- 
self. I wish it were twice as much, but it is all 
we have left fro^ ^ our last remittance. The 
next is not due for another month." 

The Chinaman shook his head. "It's no use, 
Pere Perrin, it's no use ; there's no food to be 
bought nearer than the Fu, and we are too 
weak to walk there and carry supplies back. 
Our buffaloes are gone long ago." 

Pere Perrin sighed, but returned the purse 
to his pocket ; he knew the man spoke truly, and 
that he must save his scanty store for those it 
could succour. He bade a sorrowful farewell 
to the villagers, and raising his hand in blessing, 
turned and left them. 

"My blessing was all. that I could give 
them," he said to Pere Le Brun sadly, as they 
started on their homeward way. 

It was noon when they left the Chang vil- 



PERE PERRIl^J^ 61 

. — . . , ■ ... — ^ 

lage, and they did not reach the Fu until late 
in the evening. They had taken no food, for 
there was none to buy. Hungry, therefore, 
and almost fainting, they stumbled along the 
deep ruts of the narrow roads, and it was with 
much relief that at last they saw the little 
twinkling lights of the distant city. When they 
reached their humble Chinese house, Pere Per- 
rin refused to eat. 

"I fast to-night with my starving people," 
he replied to his faithful servant Lao Liu, when 
he urged the evening bowl of rice upon the ex- 
hausted Father. 

After a few minutes' rest, Pere Perrin quiet- 
ly arose and went into the tiny chapel. All the 
long hours of that night he spent in prayer for 
the famished multitudes. 

"I simply had to say my paternosters, for if 
ever my children need their daily bread it is to- 
day," explained Pere Perrin as the two Fath- 
ers lingered a little longer than usual over their 
frugal breakfast. 

iWhile he was speaking Lao Liu entered and 
Handed Pere Perrin a note, stating that it had 
just come by special messenger from Feng Ti 
Fu. Pere Perrin opened the letter and read it 
aloud — the two old men had no secrets from 
each other. It ran as follows : 



62 FOREIGN MAGIC 

I I 

Feng Ti Fu. 
My dear Pere Perrin, 

Our friends in America have sent my colleagues and 
myself money for famine relief work; the American 
Red Cross Society has also put supplies at our disposal. 
On behalf of our station and the Famine Relief Com- 
mittee, I am sending you five hundred dollars for use 
in your district; later I hope to increase the amount. 
You and I realize, Pere Perrin, that hunger knows no 
creed. With kindest regards for Pere Le Brun and 
yourself. 

Sincerely yours. 



Pere Perrin laid the letter down and for a 
moment could not speak. Then he said, "The 
bon Dieu never forgets us, Pere Le Brun; 
surely he has prompted this thought of the be- 
nevolent American doctor. I cannot help feel- 
ing that he must love our friend especially 
dearly, for he puts so many kinds things into 
his heart to do. Do you remember that two 
years ago, when the doctor operated on my 
eyes, that he took me into his own house be- 
cause there was no room in the hospital? And 
what tender care both he and his wife gave me ! 
I have changed my mind a little about heretics 
since I knew them. It may be, Pere Le Brun, 
that when at last we reach heaven's high gate 
the kind Americans will speak a word for us to 
good St. Peter." 

There was little time for talk, however, with 



PERE PERRIN 63 

I — -n 

the ready money at hand and the poor dying at 
their doors. With all his gentle ways Pere 
Perrin had a great deal of executive ability, 
and it did not take him long to lay out a cam- 
paign of relief measures. 

"Pere Le Brun, perhaps it would be better 
for you to go to Wuhu and oversee the work 
there. I will stay here and forward supplies to 
you as they come in; you can take two of the 
lay helpers with you. I shall live in the house- 
boat at present and be ready to receive the 
stores as soon as they come up the river; but 
before you go we must send a wheelbarrow of 
provisions to the Chang village. I cannot get 
those poor patient people off my mind." 

Thus quickly was relief work under way, but 
before leaving for the boat Pere Perrin wrote 
the following letter : * 

March 1st, ipil. 
Dear Dr. Scott: 

I thank you most heartily for your kind letter and 
your sympathy toward our poor Christians. Poor cer- 
tainly they are, and in some districts the starving are 
the great majority. In one locality, for instance, where 
the ground is low and can hardly support the inhabitants 



* This letter is an exact copy of a letter written by 
Pere Perrin, a Belgian priest, to an American doctor. 
Pere Perrin's own name has been retained in this volume 
as a tribute to his saintly character and to the unselfish 
service in which he gave his life. 



64 FOREIGN MAGIC 

in good years, the mortality has been very great and 
must still increase. Our work is now too extensive for 
our resources, and the laws passed against the church 
oblige our friends at home to start so many good works 
that the alms sent out to foreign missions are yearly de- 
creasing. If difficult to balance the account in common 
years, what difficulty in a time of famine ! And yet it is 
not this reason that promj^ts me to appreciate your kind- 
ness, when you cut out such a big part of your own 
funds to be able to help us. There are many pagans as 
destitute as our Christians, but you see in them people 
redeemed by the blood of our Saviour, sons of the same 
Lord, future partakers, as I hope, of eternal bliss, and 
there united forever. What you are doing now is one of 
such deeds that must be knoAvn "ut vidsant opera vesta 
bone et glorificent Patrum vestrum qui in caelo est," I 
trust it will lead some to a better view of things, and de- 
stroy some prejudice here on earth. 

I will distribute your funds to the different districts, 
requesting our missionaries to have it served out to our 
Christians in your name and require them to pray at all 
our intentions, especially for you and the mission staff 
of your station. 

I will do the same myself and beseech our Lord to 
supply me in granting his divine blessing. Believe me, 
dear doctor, 

Yours most faithfully, 

Perrin 
F. 

During the next few weeks Pere Perrin 
hardly took time to eat ; friendly officials prom- 
ised to aid him, but he had to superintend 
everything to see that the people received their 
due portion and that none of it stuck to official 
fingers. Rumours began to reach him that ill- 



,\ I" ^'// 




A FUEL GLEANER FROM THE GROUP OF PATIENT-SPIRITED 
PEOPLE IN A FAMINE-STRICKEN VILLAGE 



PERE PERRIN 65 

ness had broken out in Feng Ti Fu, and that 
the people were dying like flies. At length a 
Chinese came to him with a sad face and told 
him he had just had a letter from his brother 
in that city, saying that Dr. Scott and another 
missionary had been stricken and that the doc- 
tor's life was despaired of. 

"It is strange, Pere Perrin, but the people in 
the street who love him for his kind deeds are 
saying, 'He saved others, himself he cannot 
save.' They do not know that this was said of 
one other long ago." 

*'Nor do they know the power of prayer to 
our good God," replied Pere Perrin firmly. 

Immediately Pere Perrin sent word to the 
priests at his chapels that masses should be said 
twice daily for his friend's recovery. He him- 
self worked all day, and now that Pere Le 
Brun was away no one knew how long were his 
night vigils on behalf of his people and the man 
who lay so ill. But his frail human frame could 
not stand the strain ; one morning he awoke too 
giddy to arise, and lay there burning with fe- 
ver. Lao Liu wished to send immediately for 
Pere Le Brun but he was strictly forbidden to 
do so. 

"Would you have all those people die whom 
he is trying to save? It is bad enough for me 



66 FOREIGN MAGIC 

to give up ; neither will I have hini exposed to 
contagion. For the same reason you may not 
take me to the hospital at Feng Ti Fu ; I will 
not endanger the lives of our friends there ; we 
must worry through alone." 

Unfortunately, Pere Perrin's ideas of medi- 
cine and of the treatment of fevers had been 
brought with him from France fully fifty years 
before. He ordered Lao Liu to seal up the 
windows so that no breath of air should reach 
him, and to give him no water, no matter how 
much he might plead for it. Under this re- 
gime he grew steadily worse and, finally, at the 
end of the week yielded to Lao Liu's entreaties 
that the boat should sail up the river to Feng 
Ti Fu. Now nearly delirious, Pere Perrin 
wrote a note to the hospital asking for shelter. 
His English was almost forgotten, and the 
letter written by fever-shaken fingers was so 
illegible that the Americans could not read it. 

The consequence was that when Lao Liu ar- 
rived with his loved master on a stretcher, they 
were not prepared for a patient; but they all 
loved Pere Perrin, and a vacant room was soon 
made ready, and the old priest was presently 
resting comfortably in a clean bed. His friend. 
Dr. Scott, had passed the crisis and was slowly 
coming back to the life which he thought that 



PERE PERRIN 67 

— ^ 

he had laid down forever. He was still too ill 
to attend Pere Perrin, but the same skilful doc- 
tor and nurse who had saved him were eager to 
serve the saintly priest. Everything that hu- 
man tenderness could do was done, but worn 
out with privations and long vigils, Pere Per- 
rin gradually sank. Pere Le Brun was sent 
for and one glance at Pere Perrin told him the 
story. He asked that he might administer the 
last rites of the church, and the sad office was 
soon performed. When the little service was 
over he still knelt beside his old comrade; the 
nurse standing near saw the sick man's lips 
moving, and she whispered to Pere Le Brun, 

"Look, he is trying to speak." 

But Pere Le Brun shook his head and an- 
swered, "Pere Perrin always prayed as he 
lived and he will die praying." 

It was a beautiful ]May morning when Pere 
Perrin went to sleep. The gardens were full 
of the scent of blossoms, and all the walks were 
edged with iris ; the arches were covered with a 
little white climbing rose which the Chinese call 
the "Tree of Fragrance," and that looked like 
a filmy cloud against the blue background of 
the sky. The Mission group gave Pere Perrin 
of the best they had, softly lining the rude cof- 



68 FOREIGN MAGIC 

fin and casting over it a pall of purple cloth ; on 
this they laid a cross of lavender iris. 

"He deserves a monarch's colours," they told 
Pere Le Brun, "though we doubt if any mon- 
arch w^as ever so greatly loved." 

Late that afternoon they bore him back to 
his own people. A little group gathered on the 
hospital steps to say farewell. They watched 
the sad procession go down the flowery path to 
the gate, and then lost sight of it for a few 
minutes as it passed through the city streets; 
but later they saw it take the narrow road 
through the young budding wheat until the 
winding river was reached. Pere Le Brun 
walked beside his friend as he had done for the 
last fifty years. 

With tear-dimmed sight they turned to leave 
and found, standing behind them, the quiet, 
dignified figure of the Confucian teacher. "Ah, 
Ladies!" he exclaimed, "we Chinese find a 
proverb in our sacred Mencius : 'The great man 
is he who does not lose his child's heart'." 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 

DO not take off your shoes until you come 
to the river brink," so runs the pithy 
Chinese proverb, from which the wayfaring 
man, though a foreigner, may easily gather 
that bridges are scarce in some parts of the 
Flowery Kingdom. 

Dong Sien Sung, with his face turned to- 
wards home and the setting sun, was too en- 
grossed in other thoughts to dwell on proverbs, 
although he and his trusty steed had forded 
many streams that day. Can you see them as 
they threaded their way carefully along the 
narrow paths so full of stones and pitfalls? 
To stumble might mean a headlong fall into 
the unpleasantly wet field that bordered the 
way, and if the donkey had fallen there would 
have been damage done to the bedding, for in 
China it is not only fashionable, but necessary, 
to carry one's own bedding when one takes 
more than a day's journey. Do not be de- 
ceived into believing that Dong Sien Sung 

69 



70 FOREIGN MAGIC 

looked in any way ridiculous as he rode aloft on 
top of his roll of bedding, for it is a fact that a 
Chinese gentleman never loses his dignity. 

Fortunately for Dong Sien Sung, his don- 
key now knew every stone in the road, and 
every mud-hole thereof that was more than a 
week old, so the man could give himself up 
undisturbed to his meditations. Mechanically 
he answered the polite inquiries from late work- 
ers in the fields. These were obvious questions 
such as: "You are travelling to-day?" or "You 
are in the country this afternoon?" and he re- 
plied, "Yes, and you are bringing in the last of 
the harvest?" The city folk and the country 
folk both have their respective codes of eti- 
quette. 

But what was troubling Dong Sien Sung? 
For he had forgotten altogether the wise ad- 
vice of the sages ; he had already taken off his 
shoes, and was struggling almost over his depth 
in the midstream of his dilemma. The key- 
note to his difficulty lay in the words that had 
been ringing in his ears all day almost like a 
refrain, "A thousand taels a year." To Dong 
Sien Sung that sum meant comparative 
wealth, a tripling of his present salary, and no 
cause for trebling worry certainly. 

On his recent visit to the busy port of Ching 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 71 

Kiang he had met an old friend who had in- 
quired politely how he was, and what his pros- 
pects were. He had answered that he was well 
and enjoying his work, and his only regret was 
that he was not earning quite as much for his 
family as he would like. 

"It is a favourable hour when I met you," 
his friend exclaimed; "I have been looking for 
a foreign-trained doctor like yourself to settle 
with me in the Interior. I have a chance to 
start in business there, but I do not want to 
take my children where there are only Chinese 
practitioners; we have learned too much for 
that. I can promise you at least a thousand 
taels a year ; the inhabitants are very progres- 
sive and eager for a man who can use the for- 
eign medicine." 

Dong Sien Sung shook his head. "To stay 
. with Dr. Scott, who needs me, would be *Fol- 
lowing the Way','' he replied, for he was well 
versed in the classics. 

His friend, however, refused to have the 
proposition declined so summarity, and said 
that he would leave the offer open for a few 
weeks until Dong Sien Sung had thought it 
over more carefully. Now the trouble with 
Dong Sien Sung was that he had a conscience 
and, moreover, it was a well-trained Christian 



72 FOREIGN MAGIC 

■ 

one. On the face of it, the offer was most al- 
luring, and one that few really progressive 
young men could resist ; but there was another 
side to be considered. Without doubt he owed 
everything to the foreigners, and as he rode, his 
thoughts went back to his childhood with its 
pitiful struggle against poverty while the shad- 
ow of starvation constantly fell across his path. 
Then a missionary had come and put him and 
his brother into school, for this friend had seen 
possibilities in the two ragged boys. 

Dong Sien Sung had been unruly and unap- 
preciative of the advantages given him. The 
teachers had often been unable to understand 
his view-point, and some of the foreigners' 
ways seemed senseless to him; but underneath 
it all he had become dimly conscious of a great 
love, and a desire to benefit him, which had at 
last won the day. He had received as good a 
medical education as the missionary college 
could give, hampered as it was by the Chinese 
restrictions against dissection and the study of 
anatomy, and w^hen a new station was opened 
in the north under a foreign surgeon he had 
gone there as assistant and student. Under 
the care of his new teacher he had grown from 
a raw, awkward, and often moody young man, 
to be a very skilful assistant, who gave ether 




Pliotof^raph by I). B. S. Morris, Hivoi Y ncv , Cliina 



THE OX MAKES A GENTLE STEED FOR THE CITIT.nREX 01' 
THE VILLAGE OF THE ARROGANT DRAGON 



WHEN THE THERMOMETER 
FALLS IN CHINA, ON GOES 
ANOTHER LAYER OF PADDED 
GARMENTS 





A CHINESE DOCTOR 73 

and handed instruments like an expert. In his 
thoughts Dong Sien Sung was too modest to 
claim all this for himself, but he knew that in 
many ways he was indispensable to the station. 

The foreigners came to him about questions 
of Chinese etiquette, or when the mission had a 
chance to buy a bit of land, and he saw to it that 
they were not cheated. In the last six months 
Dr. Scott had left him more and more in 
charge of the primitive hospital, and he en- 
joyed the sense of responsibility, while the for- 
eign doctor was thus enabled to do some orig- 
inal work in studying Oriental diseases. Dong 
Sien Sung knew that mission stations were 
poor, and that they could only afford to pay 
their helpers a living wage. His salary could 
not be raised without raising that of the other 
workers, and yet there was a sense of dissatis- 
faction and uneasiness that his income was so 
far below what he might earn in other places. 

So his river was a very deep and a very- 
muddy one, and the bank of decision seemed a 
long way off. By the time that he had studied 
the subject to this extent they were going 
through the narrow street of the village of the 
Arrogant Dragon. The name was the only 
pretentious thing about the hamlet, for the 



74 FOREIGN MAGIC 

» . ■ . i 

half-tumbled-down mud houses with their 
thatched roofs looked far from arrogant. ■ Per- 
haps the dragon, while in a fit of rage, had 
nibbled pieces out of the walls and pulled the 
straw from the roofs and then had retired in 
high dudgeon to the ruined temple which was 
his abode. As he entered the village the trav- 
eller passed a water-coolie with his two buckets 
swung on a pole over his shoulder. 

"If it had not been for the foreigners I might 
be doing that," thought Dong Sien Sung; "I 
am not so badly oiF after all." 

Unfortunately, such worthy thoughts were 
banished, for not far away the young doctor 
caught sight of a little procession. Some mili- 
tary official and his retinue were travelling in 
state. "Rather a scratch lot," an English sol- 
dier would have called them, but to Dong Sien 
Sung they typified much that he admired. The 
official rode on horseback on a gaily capari- 
soned animal, and in front and behind him 
marched ragged soldiers with large red charac- 
ters printed on their uniforms, and bearing 
paper parasols or flying pennants. The officer 
rode in dignity with a fan held up to his eyes to 
keep the rays of the setting sun from them. 
Firearms seemed to be generallj'^ lacking, but 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 75 

as long as the party had fans and parasols 
what need had they of muskets? * 

Dong Sien Simg did not care much for the 
military glory ; that part of the procession had 
no attractions for a man of education, but it 
was the sight of the official button and the 
many coloured peacock feathers that wrought 
the mischief. What would he not give to have 
one of his sons attain that honoui , dear to every 
right-thinking Chinese heart- Surely it was 
a legitimate ambition, for China sorely needed 
Christian statesmen. In the end, therefore, it 
was a very small thing that decided Dong Sien 
Sung — a glass button brought him to the firm 
ground of his resolve, and he battled no longer 
with the current. 

Having at length made up his mind, Dong 
Sien Sung took more note of his surroundings ; 
he found that they had come nearly to the end 
of their journey and were about to descend the 
banks of a real river. He knew that he must 
now be more alert, for this river had a ferry, 
and if there was anything his donkey despised 
and fought shj?- of, it was a ferry. Dong Sien 
Sung might be a changed being since he had 
been educated, but the donkey was still unre- 

* This was in the days before the Revolution; Chinese 
soldiers are much more military now. 



76 FOREIGN MAGIC 

generate ; in fact, he had never recovered from 
the cruel handhng which he had received in his 
youth, and had distrusted all mankind ever 
since. With the assistance of the ferrymen and 
fifteen or twenty yelling, swearing coolies, the 
unwilling animal was at length coaxed on 
board the ferry by dint of being jerked for- 
ward while everj'^ one kept at a safe distance 
from his heels. 

Once on board, the animal subsided and 
Dong Sien Sung had a chance to resume his 
thoughts. Though his mind was now firmly 
settled, he was not particularly happy; he was 
tired after his trip, and this last tussle with his 
donkey had not helped his temper. A pang of 
homesickness went over him as the city on the 
river-bank drew nearer, and he recognised fa- 
miliar objects. Beyond that high gate was his 
home, which his busy wife kept cosy and neat — 
so different from that of their heathen neigh- 
bours — and this was another thing for which 
they could thank the foreigners. On the high 
ridge behind the town rose the walls of the new 
hospital that was being built ; it was to be very 
sanitary, and there he could at least try some of 
the latest inventions of medical science. There, 
too, was the church and, also, the Boys' School; 
when he went away he would be taking his chil- 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 77 

! / 

dren into a city where there was absolutely no 
Christian environment. Only a Chinese can 
know the degradation which that implies ; those 
who have been through the pitch-black mid- 
night can realise the full beauty of the light. 

Dong Sien Sung shook himself from such 
thoughts as being foolish; his decision was 
made, and his children could now go to board- 
ing-school, where he would pay the tuition him- 
self without help of scholarships. The boat 
touched the shore, the donkey alighted willing- 
ly, and with a brief good-night to the boatman, 
Dong Sien Sung moved toward home. As he 
turned into the little street the boys recognised 
him and ran forward with shouts of glee. At 
the door of their courtyard stood Dong Si Mu 
all bows and smiles; when they entered their 
home together, there was no kissing as there 
would be in America — that would be highly im- 
proper — but there was great good will and 
many inquiries about each other's welfare. 

After several bowls of tea Dong Si Mu, 
without noticing his weary, gloomy face, start- 
ed to recount the news to her husband. With 
great enjoyment she showed him some red 
hard-boiled eggs sent over that day by the Liu 
family to announce the glad news that Liu 
Sien Sung was the father of a son. Dong Sien 



78 FOREIGN MAGIC 

I ^s 

Sung listened quietly for a while, for he was a 
patient man, but at last he remarked, 

"Silence in a virtuous woman is golden." 
Looking up and catching sight of his expres- 
sion, his wife decided that silence would also be 
wisdom in this particular virtuous woman. 
Nevertheless, she wondered what had comq 
over her husband's usually sunny temper. 
Dong Sien Sung was a keen man; he decided it 
would be better to wait to tell his decision to his 
wife until after he had seen Dr. Scott, then it 
would be irrevocable, for he had an idea that 
Dong Si Mu would resist the change with all 
the determination of which a Chinese woman is 
capable. Her friends and interests were here, 
and she was not ambitious to go elsewhere. 

The next morning Dong Sien Sung delayed 
reporting at the hospital until the latest pos- 
sible moment, for he loved his friend and he 
hated to disappoint him. He waited so long 
that the dispensary was full of patients and 
there was only time for an exchange of greet- 
ings, but Dr. Scott fairly beamed when he 
looked at him. "I wish he would not make it 
so hard," thought Dong Sien Sung, fretfully. 
At length all the dressings were done and the 
prescriptions given out; over the dispensary 
fell a silence, for the last patient had departed. 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 79 

— "^ 

"I am so glad to see you back," Dr. Scott 
exclaimed. "There have been several new op- 
erative cases I wish to try, but did not dare to 
do so without your assistance to help me watch 
afterwards, for it means several weeks in bed. 
But best of all, mv venerable mother has come 
to visit us from America, and I want you to be 
sure to see her." 

"It will give me great honour to call upon 
your most revered parent," Dong Sien Sung 
said without much enthusiasm. Then, gather- 
ing his courage together for his confession, he 
announced: "Dr. Scott, I have decided to 
leave Feng Ti Fu." 

In a low voice he recounted his reasons. He 
gave them eloquently and well, but he saw the 
glad light die in his friend's face as if wiped 
out by a sponge, and in its place slowly spread 
a grey, anxious look. For a long time they dis- 
cussed every phase of the question; Dr. Scott 
did not blame Dong Sien Sung one whit for 
wanting to be more independent, yet he felt his 
prospective loss terribly. It was long past tif- 
fin time when they parted rather sadly. 

In spite of his trouble, Dong Sien Sung was 
mindful of the courtesies, so late on that after- 
noon, and clad in his best silk coat, he went to 
call on the foreign lady. With his graceful 



80 FOREIGN MAGIC 

carriage, and intelligent, even noble features, 
Dong Sien Sung was every inch the gentle- 
man, and he made a most favourable impres- 
sion on the stranger. Through Dr. Scott as in- 
terpreter, he asked the proper questions as to 
her age, and the number of her sons, and com- 
plimented her on her "lofty longevity and her 
great happiness." 

After these poHte preliminaries the conver- 
sation gradually turned to the subject that was 
in all their minds, — namely Dong Sien Sung's 
departure. The lady expressed her regret and, 
after a slight pause, she said: 

"Of course we understand the reasons why 
you would like to go, and in many ways they 
seem almost unanswerable, but perhaps there 
is one side of the question which you have not 
fully considered. My sons and their friends 
have made a great sacrifice in leaving their 
homes and friends in America to come to 
China. Their prospects were very bright, but 
they did not hesitate because they loved the 
Chinese and wanted to help them. Do you not 
think the Chinese in turn should make sacri- 
fices so as to help their own people? I think 
there is no doubt your influence can count for 
more here than in some city where you have no 
one to co-operate with." 



A C HINESE DOCTOR 81 

Dong Sien Sung assented, and shortly af- 
terwards withdrew, without apparently having 
changed his mind. As they left the room to- 
gether he asked Dr. Scott if he might speak to 
him a moment in his study. As soon as they 
were seated he turned to his friend. "Dr. 
Scott," he exclaimed, "the voice of the aged is 
as the voice of God. I have decided to remain 
in Feng Ti Fu." 

Dong Sien Sung was as good as his word; he 
slipped back into his old place and fulfilled his 
duties as efficiently as he had done in the past. 
Two years flew by; then once more came a 
tempting offer from a railroad company, and 
this time there was a promise of fifteen hun- 
dred taels a year if he would look after the 
health of the workmen. There was a chance 
for private practice as well. 

The Chinese sages say, "Heaven has heaven 
spirits, earth has earth spirits, man has man 
spirit, tilings have indwelling spirits," and they 
surely ought to loiow, for they lived in China in 
the golden age of wisdom. With so many spir- 
its about, it is no wonder that a spirit of rest- 
lessness entered into Dong Sien Sung. "The 
voice of the aged" was now across the Pacific, 
too far away to be heard by the keenest ears, so 
he accepted the offer, and, on one autumn 



82 FOREIGN MAGIC 

morning, with a vevy red-eyed Dong Si Mu 
and his three children, he left Feng Ti Fu. 

The ambitious practitioner prospered be- 
jT^ond his brightest dreams, yet for some reason 
he did not feel very contented. Perhaps this 
was partly due to the news of the terrible fam- 
ine raging around his old home and that the 
foreigners were working ceaselessly to relieve 
the want. In March the soft spring wind re- 
minded him that the plum trees in front of the 
hospital would soon be in bloom; that the 
pomegranates on the hillside were turning a 
delicate pink, and a great wave of homesickness 
went through him. In the end the little breezes 
wooed him South again. He told his wife that 
he needed some medical supplies, and leaving a 
young doctor in charge of his work, he fared 
forth with a lighter heart than he had known 
for some months. 

His donkey, too, seemed to feel the holiday 
spirit and was unusually docile, if the word can 
ever be truthfully apphed to the animal. As 
they travelled, the character of the country 
changed, and the fields grew more bare, for 
every blade of grass had been pulled up by the 
people in their great hunger. The few men 
whom they met were mere skeletons, with 
scarcely strength enough to hold out their 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 83 

hands. Dong Sien Sung gave such relief as he 
could and was thus so delayed that it was 
nearly dusk on the third day before he ap- 
proached the city. He fairly glowed when he 
thought of the welcome which he would re- 
ceive. 

Suddenly, he recognised one of the Chris- 
tians in a figure that was walking toward him. 
But why was his head so bowed and his face 
clouded with grief? They met and greeted 
each other with grave courtesy, and after one 
or more questions on Dong Sien Sung's part, 
the evangelist exclaimed: "Have you not 
heard the news? I thought that was the rea- 
son that you had come. The poor of Feng Ti 
Fu all 'eat bitterness' to-night. Dr. Scott is 
down with tvphus fever and he cannot last 
more than an hour or so! They had all been 
working like giants over the famine and were 
worn out. Reports came in that the people 
were dying like flies in one of the temples where 
they were harbouring refugees, and Dr. Scott 
went to see what he could do. He found it 
worse than he had feared, and he, too, caught 
the contagion and has been wildly delirious. 
Liu Sien Sung is ill, too, and no one is having 
any rest." 

The bitterness the poor were eating was 



84 FOREIGN MAGIC 

sweet compared to the sorrow and remorse in 
Dong Sien Sung's heart. Would he never 
hear his teacher's voice again? He urged his 
donkey on as that surprised animal had never 
been urged since he fell into Christian hands, 
and wonder filled that dumb beast's breast. He 
was so outraged that he actually responded, 
and very quickly they were at the compound 
gate and the donkey was delivered into the care 
of the gatekeeper. Dong Sien Sung hurried 
up to the house and was met by the foreign 
nurse. 

She greeted him with great surprise. "But 
you must not come in," she said, "the house is 
quarantined ; you might take the fever and you 
must think of your own life and that of your 
family." 

"I have come to help," he replied firmly. 
"Did Dr. Scott ever think of himself when he 
could relieve suffering? He had a wife and. 
family when he went to the temple, but that 
did not keep him from doing his duty," and he 
walked into the house. 

In the sad days of suspense that followed, 
none was more untiring than Dong Sien Sung. 
Foreigners and this Chinese doctor vied with 
each other in loving service; often it would be 
four o'clock in the afternoon before they could 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 85 

leave the sick room long enough to snatch a 
mouthful of breakfast. They were fighting 
against a treacherous foe, and they simply 
would not acknowledge themselves defeated. 
Three times they thought the loved patient had 
gone, only to see some slight flicker of life re- 
turn, which encouraged them to work on. 

Dong Sien Sung was invaluable; his quiet 
manner soothed the patient, and it was a plea- 
sure to see how softly he moved about the room, 
and with what skill he used his shapely hands. 
He was always on the alert, ready for any 
emergency, and when not needed would keep 
himself absolutely in the background. Even 
when the crisis was past and the foreigners 
felt that it was safe to relax their watchfulness, 
they could not persuade Dong Sien Sung to 
leave the sufferer. It was a mystery when he 
ate and never did he seem to sleep. He was 
like the faithful shepherd dog who will not 
leave his wounded master's side. 

At length came a day when Dr. Scott sat 
bolstered up in a chair, and radiant with joy. 
Dong Sien Sung sat beside him. 

"Dong Sien Sung, you will soon be going 
back to your work, and I want to try to thank 
you, but no words can ever express the love and 
gratitude I bear you. If only I could afford to 



86 FOREIGN MAGIC 

3 

keep you near me, I would never let you go. 
I shall always think of you when I hear the 
words, 'Faithful unto death'," said the for- 
eigner, turning to his friend with deep feeling. 

For once Dong Sien Sung forgot the formal 
sentiments demanded bj^- Chinese custom, and 
he replied simply, "Dr. Scott, I cannot leave 
you. What you have gone through has made 
the next world seem all important, and ad- 
vancement appears worthless in comparison to 
fidelit}" to duty. When I saw how quietly you 
spoke that day when we all came to say good- 
bye, and how sweetly Mrs. Scott bore it, and 
helped to keep your courage strong with her 
own, I made up my mind to stay in Feng Ti 
Fu. I plainly saw that it is true that 'None of 
us liveth to hiriiself, and none dieth to himself,* 
and I felt that I must be in a place that is doing 
work for other people." Thus Dong Sien Sung 
turned his back on his ambitions and a com- 
petencj^ of fifteen hundred taels a year. Do 
such men deserve the name of rice Christians? 

Let no one make the mistake of thinking 
that life in the Middle Kingdom is monoto- 
nous. In the following autumn a little fire 
started that was spread all over the country to 
s^^eep away the monarchy. Like all con- 
flagrations, it did not amount to much at first, 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 87 

i 3 

and people smiled when they spoke of the 
revolution. The foreigners returned as usual 
to their stations after their vacations, but the 
fire of the uprising crept nearer ; Nanking was 
besieged, and the American consul telegraphed 
that the women and children must go to 
Shanghai. Reluctantly they departed, leaving 
Dr. Scott at the hospital with Dong Sien Sung 
as his right hand man. 

The uncertainty and suspense that followed 
would be difficult to describe. Mails were in- 
frequent and the anxious friends in Shanghai 
could hear nothing, except at long intervals; 
but the wildest rumours of the happenings of 
that period did not convey any real idea of the 
atrocities that actually occurred. At Feng Ti 
Fu matters were even worse; the country 
round about was full of bands of robbers, who 
attacked the unprotected villages while the in- 
habitants fled into the city for safety. Once 
Dr. Scott got as far as a three or four hours' 
trip from home on his way to Nanking for 
news, when a messenger came after him with 
the report that brigands had surrounded Feng 
Ti Fu and had been repulsed in a sharp little 
encounter, and would he return, as the chief of- 
ficial had been wounded ? There was nothing to 
do but to go back as quickly as possible. 



88 FOREIGN MAGIC 

Things grew worse and worse; the helpers 
and evangelists were forced to take their fam- 
ihes to their own province for safety. Thus 
far no foreigners had been killed ; monarchists 
and revolutionists alike had orders to protect 
them, but the brigands were looting under no 
man's orders. Dong Sien Sung came to Dr. 
Scott again and again, pleading with him to 
leave. Finally, word came that the trains were 
no longer to run, and that people who fled 
along the railroad tracks were murdered every 
day. 

Dong Sien Sung and the city elders went to 
the foreigner and said, "You must go; staying 
here you endanger all our lives, for the rob- 
bers, knowing you are here, will be tempted all 
the more to come. They have an idea that 
every foreigner is rich." 

"But," Dr. Scott protested, "I have only a 
few dollars ; they will get nothing." 

"That is all the worse! They will not be- 
lieve you and think you have it hidden, and 
will torture both you and us." 

This was unanswerable, so he turned to 
Dong Sien Sung: "Of course you will come 
too, your family in Shanghai will expect it?" 

The young doctor shook his head: "My 
duty is to stay and guard the compound; the 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 89 

news would quickly spread if there was no one 
in charge, and it would be pillaged immedi- 
ately. I speak the dialect and could disguise 
myself, perhaps, in case of trouble, but you 
would be umnistakable. But," and his eyes 
filled with tears, "if anything happens to me 
you will look after my family ?" 

Much moved by the request, Dr. Scott prom- 
ised the brave fellow that he would do so, and 
they set to work over last plans. One of the 
hardest things Dr. Scott ever did was to say 
good-bye to his faithful friend, whom he left 
standing calm and brave at the gate of the hos- 
pital. He caught the last train out to 
Shanghai and arrived there without accident. 
Dong Sien Sung's task was anything but easy; 
he had to guard the compounds, not only 
against brigands, but from sneak thieves as 
well, and he scarcely knew rest day or night. 
Town after town in the neighbourhood was 
looted and the inhabitants slaughtered, but 
though as by a miracle, the robbers passed by 
the hospital buildings. Each day a rumour 
came that on the morrow the brigands would 
surely arrive, but several weeks elapsed and 
still the compound was undisturbed. At last 
the unhappy country began to settle down once 
more; a republic was established, and the 



90 FOREIGN MAGIC 

I 

American consul gave Dr. Scott permission to 
return to Feng Ti Fu. 

At the hospital he met the same calm friend 
that he had left, very much worn, it is true, 
from his many vigils, but loyal to the last. To- 
gether they went over the hospital and houses, 
while Dong Sien Sung told the story of those 
hard weeks with not one word of boasting. 
Everything was as it had been left; nothing 
seemed to have been taken. It was wonderful 1 
Even on the nursery floor lay a little toy horse 
that had been dropped by one of the babies in 
the hurry of departure. To hide his emotion 
Dr. Scott stooped down to pick it up. Finger- 
ing it nervously he said, "Dong Sien Sung, we 
can really never thank you enough, for you 
have saved our homes at the risk of your own 
life, and you never counted the cost; what are 
thanks compared to such an act?" 

Dong Sien Sung was equally moved. But 
in China they find it hard to speak the language 
of the heart, and to his lips came only the con- 
ventional words that cloak so many shades of 
thought, "It is nothing!" 

Then the American did a thing that was con- 
trary to all Oriental etiquette; he held out his 
hand and his friend clasped it warmly. The 



A CHINESE DOCTOR 91 



man from the East and the man from the West 
both knew that they were joined together by a 
bond that no distance or time could ever 
sever. 



VI 

THE INCENSE BURNER 

CHANG Dah INIah sat sipping her tea 
with deep indrawn breaths of content; 
she nodded her head sagely to give emphasis 
to the remark she was making. "So I said to 
the foreign lady, 'Books won't do, Mrs. Scott, 
books won't do out our way, for the necro- 
mancer is the only one that can read, and he's 
Wind'." 

Her companion felt that Chang Dah MaH 
had made the only possible rejoinder under the 
circumstances, but realising that her friend 
had more conversational tit-bits in reserve, Wu 
Sao Tze remained silent. 

Chang Dah Mali nibbled daintily at a water- 
melon seed and continued, "It takes a fast 
rider and an early start to reach one's destina- 
tion before a foreigner, for Mrs. Scott replied, 
'In that case I think we will have to teach you 
to read,' and I was so surprised I promised that 
I would come twice a week to a class. I can't 
imagine why I did. Whoever heard of a wom- 

92 



THE INCENSE BURNER 98 

I > 

an's learning to read at my age, and why- 
should they want to take the trouble? It 
seems strange enough." 

Wu Sao Tze shook her head; it all sounded 
very suspicious. "You had better beware," 
she said. "There is black magic in those foreign 
books; I have it on good authority that they 
seem to teach beautiful doctrines, but those 
who try to practise them become very queer," 
and she tapped her forehead suggestively. 

Chang Dah Mah was thoughtful for a min- 
ute. "I am not sure, but I think those reports, 
are wrong, for our own wise men say, 'Be- 
nevolence is man's peaceful abode; righteous- 
ness is his straight path.' I sometimes wonder 
if it would not be well if the Chinese were 
queer in the same way. I was told when I 
went to the hospital nearly blind that the for- 
eigners would cut out my eyes to make medi- 
cine; instead, they gave me back my sight. 
Did a Chinese doctor ever make a blind per-» 
son see? They stick needles into the eye and 
then one is blind without a shadow of doubt. 
Now there is Mrs. Scott, the doctor's wife ; he 
is as polite to her as he would be to a man; 
he actually allows her to go through a door 
before himself, and he opens it for her most 
courteously. Do not mention it, but," and 



94 FOREIGN MAGIC 

here Chang Dah Mah cast a furtive glance 
around her to be sure there was no listener to 
the terrible heresy she was about to utter, "I 
sometimes wish I had been born a foreign 
woman myself," 

Wu Sao Tze's startled glance made Chang 
Dah Mah realise that she had gone too far; 
should Wu Sao Tze report this, it might get 
her into trouble with her family and neighi 
hours. Here was a case for diplomacy. "I 
suppose you would not care to attend this 
class, you might be afraid of the magic? It is 
a pity, too, for there is so seldom anything new 
in this part of town, and the foreigners have 
all sorts of strange toys that they show one. 
There is a box of music that plays without any 
one's touching it; it can't be bewitched, for 
the head official has one at the yamen, and he 
would not use a dangerous thing, for he is a 
learned man. Then they have clocks that 
strike, and queer furniture and clothes. They 
do not use chopsticks, but knives and forks 
that are most barbarous. It is too bad, but of 
course you would not feel it safe to come, and 
I would not even suggest it to you." 

The Chinese are often called a peculiar peo- 
ple, but when we come to analyse them they 
are not very different from ourselves, for 



THE INCENSE BURNER 95 

I J 

American ladies have been known to gossip 
over a cup of tea. Curiosity does frequently 
overcome their prudence, and the temptation 
of being seen with a woman of better birth 
has sometimes caused them to accept an invi- 
tation, no matter what the consequences. 

Although Chang Dah Mah did not know 
how to read, she knew womankind and was not 
at all surprised when her friend swallowed her 
skilfully dangled bait and said that she would 
join the class. The temptress drew a sigh of 
rehef, for now she felt safer; Wu Sao Tze 
could not accuse her of being under the foreign 
influence if she w^ent to their home herself. 

The sun set early on those November days, 
and long shadows from the western mountain 
were creeping down the narrow street of the 
little hamlet where Chang Dah Mah lived. 
The village was nothing but an unkempt sub- 
urb of the larger city that lay to the north ; a 
suburb that had once been properous, but, like 
the inhabitants themselves, it had fallen into 
adversity. 

Chang Dah Mah' knew that she must now 
make her adieux. Having thanked Wu Sao 
Tze for her boundless hospitality, and having 
made arrangements for them^ to go together on 



96 FOREIGN MAGIC 

i I 

the following day to' thd foreign lady's class, 
the two friends separated. 

The family of Chang w^ere in no sense par- 
venues, for they could trace their ancestry back 
through many generations. In China, where 
everything old is regarded almost as fetish, 
good lineage is doubly respected ; but, alas, this 
family had little else but past grandeur to live 
upon, and their present condition could best be 
described as "decayed gentilit3^" The Taip- 
ing rebellion had swept over that' part of the 
country, leaving devastation in its wake, and 
the city^ and the neighbourhood almost a heap 
of ruins. 

The Changs lived in patriarchal fashion, 
after the manner of China's best families ; three 
generations of sons, their wives, and their chil- 
dren all dwelt under one roof — or what re- 
mained of one roof. And such an arange- 
ment, as Chang Dah Mah could attest, does 
not make for peace and a quiet life. 

"No one need tell her the scene that would 
greet her when she entered her home ; she loiew 
that the children would be quarrelling, the 
women gossiping, and the men loafing. The 
condition of their finances w^asi rendered pre- 
carious from the fact that the men "could not 
dig," for manual toil was beneath them. "To 




'■u 



■■-^ffiXAAS^kn 




I'liotoynij-h I'v Th R. S. Morn's, Uvui Yuen, Cliina 



THE DIN AND CLANGOR OF THE CROWDED STREET SEEM 
FAR RE310VED FROM THE QUIET (;aRI)EN WITHIN THE COITRTVARI) 
OK THE CHINESE HOME 



THE INCENSE BURNER 97 

beg they were ashamed," and they had no 
learning; so the only practicable means of 
support was to sell an occasional heirloom to 
the pawnbroker and gamble away the pro- 
ceeds. Such a course of conduct did' not im- 
prove their disi^ositions. 

Chang Dah Mali helped out a little by doing 
sewing; indeed, it waj^ in this way that slie had 
first met the foreigners. She had gone to them 
against her family's will, fori there was no tell- 
ing what disaster slie might bring upon her 
precious relatives by associating with "foreign 
devils," and she had persisted, not from any 
particular bravery, but had been driven on by 
the pangs of hunger. The strangers had no- 
ticed the state of her poor eyes and had finally 
prevailed on her to liave an operation. 

Very few such kindnesses had Chang Dah 
Mall known since she had come, a child of 
eight, to live in the house of her father-in-law, 
and this one had impressed her greatly. Her 
life had been one round of sordid toil because 
she was the quietest and most industrious 
among the women. The only break in the mo- 
notony had been her husband's death many 
years before, which had been quite a pleasur- 
able excitement with its hired mourners, feast- 
ing, and confusion; and she could not feel any 



98 rOKEIGN MAGIC 

depth of sorrow for liim, as he had been one of 
the worst of her* tyrants. The marriages of her 
younger brothers-in-law had indeed been mo- 
mentous too, but as she had to do the greater 
part of the work on these occasions, she did not 
look back upon them with any particular joy. 
Now, however, the foreign lady had smiled 
upon her and life had taken on another hue; 
she had not yet given over* all misgivings, but 
something drew her irresistibly toward the 
newcomer's home. 

It can easily be seen that it was with no 
rose-coloured dreams of anticipation that 
Chang Dah Mah turned her face towards her 
dwelhng. On reaching the threshold she drove 
away a lean pariah dog that had followed her 
closely; her imagination was too deadened by 
toil to see in it a likeness to the proverbial 
wolf whose shadow ever fell across that door- 
way. As she entered she was greeted by a tor- 
rent of curses for the lateness of the hour. 
"When you know your brothers-in-law need 
their evening meal, that is the hour you choose 
for idling with your gossip." The only reason 
Chang Dah Mah was permitted to pay such 
visits was the knowledge that she usually got 
a cup of tea, which left more food for the 
hungry mouths at home. 



THE INCENSE BURNER 09 

— I 

The house was almost dark and the flicker- 
ing oil lamp accentuated the blackness all 
around. Chang Dah Mah did not need to 
remove her hat and coat, for she wore the same 
clothing out of doors as in the house. There 
was no heat, and the air in the damp rooms 
was even more clammy than that in the open. 
With a quick glance around her to see that 
no one was watching, she went to the corner 
of the room where she kept her bedding to 
assure herself that it had remained untouched, 
in her absence, then she turned and started 
her preparation for the evening meal. 

Now Chang Dah Mah had a secret, and 
around it centred the greatest joy and the 
greatest fear of her poor thwarted life. Thirty 
3^ears before as her dissolute husband lay dying 
he spoke to her in a low whisper when for a 
brief minute they happened to be alone. Beck- 
oning her to lean over him, so that no one could 
see what he was doing, from beneath his bed- 
ding he slipped a little b^ass bowl into her 
hand. Bidding her turn it over, he pointed out 
on the bottom of it the seal of a dynasty long 
since passed away. It was one in which many 
of the most valuable Chinese works of art were 
made. 

The dying man told her that this piece of 



100 FOREIGN MAGIC 

I I 

brass had belonged to the Changs ever since 
that period, and that there was a legend that if 
the incense-burner were sold, a great disaster 
would fall, not only on the living members of 
the family, but on the spirits of their ancestors. 
The only way it could ever be parted with was 
as a gift of charity, but he warned her against 
this as a foolish waste; no Chang could ever 
be brought to give anything away. 

"I give it to you, foolish woman," he said, 
"because I know that my brothers would sell 
anything to get money for gambling; I can 
hardly trust you not to seU it fori food, but you 
are the most trustworthy." And with these 
kindly words he breathed his last. 

Chang Dah Mali quickly slipped her new re- 
sponsibility up her ample sleeve and called the 
family. Not for many hours did she have a 
chance in quiet to examine her new possession, 
as the mourning of her brothers-in-law made 
up in noise what it lacked in sincerity. At last, 
one night when the household was deep in slum- 
ber, Chang Dah Mah was able to inspect her 
incense-burner by the dim light of the moon. 
She longed to see the brass in the daytime, as 
she had done at first, and when the polished 
sides had shone like gold to her who never be- 
fore in her life had owned anji:hing of value. 



THE INCENSE BURNER 101 

Chang; Dah Mali passed her finger lovingly 
over her treasure, tracing the seal on the bot- 
tom with great care, though she was too igno- 
rant to know a single character, and for nearly 
an hour she held it and fondled it. Very se- 
cretly she dug a hole in the mud floor under the 
place where she had always kept her bedding ; 
there she hid it by wrapping it in a handker- 
chief, and by packing the earth carefully over 
the hole. Daylight had almost come before 
she (had satisfied herself that there was no 
chance of discovery. 

From that time forward Chang Dah Mah's 
life centred around the bowl; all the affection 
that had previously been denied expression was 
lavished on this small object. Before this, she 
had tried to satisfy her yearning for love by 
kindnesses to her nephews and nieces, but their 
parents had been jealous, and they had forced 
her to desist. Then she had adopted a scrawny 
kitten, but the family had exclaimed in horror 
at giving scraps to her pet that she should eat 
herself, so the animal was taken away. No one 
could interfere with her affection for the in- 
cense-burner as no one knew of its existence. 

Very seldom did she have a chance to look 
at it, for only occasionally did she dare to take 
it from the hiding place, and then only at 



102 FOREIGN MAGIC 

night. Once a year when the family attended 
the idol procession she would steal away in the 
crowd and go home to gloat over the brass 
incense-burner. To keep it as brightly polish- 
ed as on the day when she received it was ever 
her ambition, but, that, too, had to be done at 
night. She never went away from the house 
without the fear tugging at her heart that some 
one might discover it in her absence, and so it 
was with a deep sigh of relief that she would, 
return and find it safe. This treasure had neve» 
had a rival, and the slight da\vning interest 
Chang Dah IMah had in the foreigners could 
not be compared to the all-absorbing feeling 
for it which had crept into the very fibre of 
her being. 

The following morning Chang Dah IMah 
arose earlier than usual so that she would be 
sure to get away in good tune for the mile 
walk to the foreigner's compound. How her 
family would jeer, she thought, if they had 
known that stupid Chang Dah JNIah really im- 
agined that she could learn to read. 

She made herself as tidy as she could under 
the circumstances, and hobbled off stiffly on her 
poor boiuid feet. AVu Sao Tze was waiting for 
her impatiently at the corner of the street, so 
there was no delay in their departure. The 



THE INCENSE BURNER 103 

bright, sparkling, autuimi sunshine seemed to 
get into their blood, and as they walked along, 
they chatted almost gaily of the wonders they 
were about to see. 

Wu Sao Tze found, to her surprise, that 
Chang Dah JMah had not exaggerated the mar- 
vels of the missionary house. She put an inquis- 
itive nose into every closet and every drawer 
to assure herself that there was no baby's 
skeleton concealed, and at last, being fully sat- 
isfied that there was no black art hidden in any 
sequestered nook, she consented to being be- 
guiled with the other women into the reading 
class. Chang Dah JVIah had proudly acted as 
guide in seeing all the curiosities. As they 
seated themselves in the woman's guest-room, 
Wu Sao Tze confided to her friend in a loud 
whisper that all the people present could hear : 

"Well, the foreigners may not use magic, 
but they are certainly very, very queer," 

It was with difficulty that Wu Sao Tze was 
restrained from talking during the hymn and 
prayer that followed; in fact, she kept up a 
running comment on all that was said and 
done that was very amusing. Before the read- 
ing lesson was begun, a short selection from 
the Bible was read and commented on by the 
teacher. The verse on that morning was on the 



104 FOREIGN MAGIC 

forgiving of one's enemies, and to Wu Sao 
Tze it seemed an utterly absurd doctrine. In 
her eagerness and excitement she stood right 
up, for she felt that such foolish words must be 
contradicted. 

"Hear me! Mrs. Scott," she exclaimed, 
"such doctrine may be all very well where you 
come from, but it won't do in China; not for 
a moment ! Why, our enemies would ride right 
over us ; you have to have backbone here, and 
answer right back when you are reviled, or 
you would lose face." 

All the other women but Chang Dah Mah 
nodded assent. "She is right and has answered 
wisely," they murmured ; but Chang Dah Mah, 
thinking of her sisters-in-law and their harsh 
tongues, felt that there might be something 
to be said for the new sj'^stem. 

During the next few months Wu Sao Tze 
and Chang Dah Mah attended the class regu- 
larly and, little by little, were able to recog- 
nise a few characters. The kindness and sym- 
pathy that they invariably receiA^ed melted 
their prejudices and won their love, though 
Wu Sao Tze would often shake her head and 
say: 

"But I can't understand why they take the 
trouble, unless it is to acquire merit." 



THE INCENSE BURNEK 105 

. ■ , ,„ - — — — / 

In February the famine that had been 
threatening fell on the city with its horrors. 
Those were dark days for Chang Dah Mah, 
for she felt her strength gradually failing, and 
she began to fear that the time would come 
when she would no longer be able to walk to 
the foreigner's home and see her beloved Mrs. 
Scott. The only money she could make was by 
the sewing which she did for that lady. Chang 
Dah Mah would not complain, so it was not 
suspected how much she needed food, and if 
she looked a little thin, so did all the women. 

For the first time since it had come into her 
possession, Chang Dah Mah seriously contem- 
plated the necessity of selling the incense- 
burner. In former famines she had thought of 
it, but had always decided that she would rath- 
er die than lose it, and the idea of being haunt- 
ed by her ancestors' spirits had deterred her. 
But now to be separated from Mrs. Scott 
seemed even worse than ghosts ; besides this a 
little of the Christian doctrine had begun to 
sink in, and she began to doubt some of the old 
superstitions. Night after night she would dig 
up the treasure, thinking that in the morning 
she would sell it, but as the day began to dawn, 
old habits and associations regained their pow- 



106 FOKEIGX IMxVGIC 

' — - 

er, and she would return the bowl to its hiding 
place. 

On one warm IMarch afternoon the two 
friends decided to go and see ^Irs. Scott, 
though it was not the usual time. The notes of 
a spring bird seemed to assure them that winter 
and the famine would soon be gone, so they 
were more cheerful than thev had been for 
many weeks. When they reached the gate of 
the compound a sad disappointment awaited 
them, for the foreign doctor was down with ty- 
phus fever and the place was in strict quaran- 
tine. JMrs. Scott was nursing him and could 
see no one, so they turned their faces homeward 
with heavy hearts; several times Chang Dali 
Mali nearly fell, for she was weighed down with 
grief and hunger. She thonght of the tender- 
ness she had received in the hospital ; how gen- 
tly Dr. Scott had touched her eyes, and now he 
was dying and she could not tell him of her 
gratitude. 

Chang Dali JNIali never knew how she lived 
through the next few weeks. She received a 
little sewing from some of the other foreign 
ladies and that kept her from dying; but they 
were too absorbed with the illness to know that 
very often Chang Dah INlah's eyes were so 
dimmed with tears that she could scarcely see 



THE IXCEXSE BURNER 107 

I - 

her stitches, for the reports were not favour- 
able, but rather worse and worse. 

Then one day when she crept to the front 
door they told her that the doctor was better 
and if she would come back in three days' time 
that she could see her beloved foreign lady. No 
words can tell of Chang Dah blah's joy; she 
forgot that she was old and weak with hunger 
and went down the street telling the glad news 
to the neighbours as she passed. 

The minutes dragged on leaden wings until 
the hour that Mrs. Scott had appointed for 
Chang Dah JNIah's visit, and when she finally 
stood bowing before the foreigner, she could 
scarcely speak. She seemed shy and ill at ease 
and acted as if she had something on her mind. 
Mrs. Scott, to relieve her embarrassment, 
talked to her of everything which she thought 
would interest her, when suddenly in a broken 
voice Chang Dah Mah said: 

"Mrs. Scott, it is such a great happiness to 
us poor that Dr. Scott is better that I can 
scarcely talk about it. I hear he took the fever 
going to see the people who were dying at the 
temple; now he must not run such risks if I 
can prevent it, so I have brought him this 
worthless incense-burner that when he goes 
into places where there are contagious diseases 



108 FOREIGN MAGIC 

w- — ...... ^ 

he will smell the incense and come to no harm." 
And putting her hand up the ample sleeve of 
her Chinese coat, Chang Dah Mah drew forth 
her treasure, carefully wrapped in a blue hand- 
kerchief. 

Deeply touched, Mrs. Scott looked search- 
ingly into the woman's eyes and knew that this 
was a gift that must not be refused, no matter 
how valuable it might be. But she could never 
know that Chang Dah Mah had given all that 
she had. 

After this time the days sped rapidly by for 
Chang Dah JMah, and she was constantly at 
the home of her new friends, much relieved 
in spirit by the renunciation she had made. At 
length came the end of ]May and it was an- 
nounced that the next lesson would be the last 
for the women's reading class, as it was neces- 
sary for the foreigners to go away to the 
mountains. 

Once more Chang Dah Mah and Wu Sao 
Tze made an early start in order not to lose 
one tnoment of the precious time of that last 
day. As they entered the walk leading up to 
the door, the garden was a blaze of glory with 
the spring flowers forming a mass of bloom; 
the bright colours claimed their attention, and 
they could scarcely leave them to enter the 



THE INCENSE BURNER 109 

house. The class was soon assembled and the 
exercises begun. The chapter read was from 
the end of Revelation, and Mrs. Scott, who 
felt that she had recently had a glimpse into 
the Holy City, talked with her face aglow. 
She looked down for some answering light in 
those dull contenances that were just begin- 
ning to show some small spark of intelligence, 
but they looked bewildered and startled. Such 
profound knowledge was difficult for them to 
grasp. 

Then the teacher's eyes caught those of 
Chang Dah Mah, who was sitting eagerly for- 
ward in her chair so as not to miss one word. 
It was evident that her long, grey day of sor- 
did existence was ending in a golden sunset 
shot with the colours of the rainbow. Taught 
by her love and her great sacrifice, she suddenly 
exclaimed: 

"Oh, Mrs. Scott, it must be very beautiful, 
even lovelier than the garden, and I want to 
go! I want to go!" Then, catching sight 
of her rough, toil-stained hands, and her coarse 
coat, she felt she would never gain admittance 
to this wonderful place if she went alone; so 
looking wistfully up at her friend she contin- 
ued, "I'll follow you! I'll follow you! if you 
will only take me to that country!" 



VII 
HOW BETTY SAVED THE KIDDIES 

BETTY put down her story-book and 
sighed ahnost from her boots. She wished 
that she was not only just thirteen; it must be 
perfectly lovely to be as old as "William the 
Conqueror" and go into the heat of Southern 
India to feed poor starving natives. Of course, 
it wasn't the William the Conqueror famous in 
history whom she was envjnng, but Rudyard 
Kipling's "William — the girl," who insisted on 
spending a simimer helping her brother to res- 
cue Indian famine sufferers. 

"I suppose I'm really not pretty enough to 
be a heroine," Betty thought. "A girl with red 
hair and a good many freckles wouldn't do at 
all; still Ivipling doesn't make William very 
beautiful, so if I were a bit older I might have 
a chance. And Elizabeth Kenneth McKenzie 
w^ould read awfully well — it's the only beauti- 
ful thing about me." 

Betty looked wistfully out of the window 
on the narrow grass plot surrounded by 

110 



BETTY AND THE KIDDIES 111 

flower beds in which a few late chrysanthe- 
mums still bloomed; beyond these the high 
compound walls shut her in. On the whole, it 
was a very small playground and it did not 
tempt her now. Over the walls came the usual 
street noises of a crowded Chinese city; the 
call of the street vender, the shrill scolding of 
women quarrelling, the barking of pariah dogs, 
even the grunts of pigs, and at the gate, the 
tap of a beggar's stick, and his whining voice 
asking for alms. The air was oppressive with 
sickening odours, for in China, as a visitor 
once wisely remarked, "There are sevetity- 
five smells one can identify and twenty-five 
unknown ones." It would take walls several 
leagues high to keep these odours from pene- 
trating. 

Betty did not notice the noises or the smells; 
like Brer Fox, who had been "born and bred 
in a brier i^tch," she had always lived within 
sight and sound of these very streets. 

This year was different, however. All sum- 
mer long the rain had fallen, and the rivers and 
canals had risen and flooded the country as far 
as eye could see. When Betty had come back 
from the summer in the mountains and had 
steamed up the river in a launch, instead of 
green fields and bright harvests the country 



112 FOREIGN MAGIC 

was one vast lake. The city, too, had changed ; 
around its walls thousands of straw huts had 
been built. These were just long enough for a 
man to lie in, but not tall enough to make it 
possible for him to stand erect. And in these 
huts lived one hundred thousand men, women, 
and children. 

Betty was never allowed at any season to go 
out alone in the crowded streets, but this win- 
ter she did not want to go even with her father, 
as there were hungry people on every hand, 
begging for bread. She could not bear to pass 
them by without giving them a few cashj and to 
do so might cost the lives of all the foreigners ; 
for in a few minutes a mob of starving people 
would collect and demand food ; so all the giv- 
ing had to be done outside the walls at famine 
relief camps. 

Life seemed very dull and very sad, indeed, 
to Betty on this dark November afternoon. "I 
know I should feel better if I could onb' do 
something for them," she repeated over and 
over, "Then I would climb on a mule and go 
out to the relief work and give out meal tickets 
all day, and I wouldn't mind their crying so, 
because I would be doing something." 

At that moment she heard a knock at the 
door of the gate-house and saw the old gate- 



BETTY AND THE KIDDIES 113 

1 I 

keeper in his funny padded coat go forward 
to open the door. He stood making deep bows 
of welcome to Betty's mother. ISTo matter how 
often in the day she came in, Chinese polite- 
ness called for a certain amount of ceremony 
every time. Betty was overjoyed to see her, 
but as her mother came nearer she noticed with 
a pang how tired she looked. She sank into a 
chair with a sigh, while Betty stuffed a cushion 
behind her back, took off her hat, and ran into 
the kitchen for a cup of tea. Betty had not 
lived so long in China without finding out the 
cheering qualities of tea. 

"Well, dearie, what have you been doing?" 
her mother asked between refreshing sips. 

"Oh, nothing, only reading," Betty an- 
swered. "But where in the world have you 
been all this time ? It's been terribly lonesome, 
with the boys at the Steads and you and father 
out." 

"I have been visiting the poor women in the 
neighbourhood to find the really needy cases; 
but the trouble is that they are all so needy it's 
hard to choose," and the tired lines returned 
to her face as she spoke. "There are at least 
fifteen babies right around us who will starve 
to death unless we feed them, and I really do 



114 FOREIGN MAGIC 

L ■ ^S 

not see how I can do one solitary thing more 
than I am doing." 

Betty's heart went thump; here was her 
chance, but she must keep quiet and not speak 
hastily or she might lose it. After thinking a 
moment, she said with an air of grown-up im- 
portance which she unconsciously used when 
talking to older people, "Oh, mother, just let 
me feed those babies!" 

"You, Betty!" her mother exclaimed. 

"Yes, me — ^your daughter, Elizabeth Ken- 
neth McKenzie — the name ought to help. I 
can do it morning and evening; you can show 
me how the first time and then I will do it by 
my lonesome." 

"But, Betty, the babies are so dirty; I'm 
sure you will have all sorts of diseases. I sim- 
ply can't have my little daughter touch them." 

"Well, mother, I don't see what's the use of 
being the daughter of a foreign missionary if 
you can't keep babies from starving. I might 
as well be brought up in style in America; any- 
how, with father spending all his days among 
the famine fever patients, and you in the peo- 
ple's houses, if we are going to catch things and 
die, we will anyway." 

Her mother knew that she spoke the truth, 
but she could not help a sigh. She did not 



BETTY AND THE KIDDIES 115 

doubt Betty's powers, for she had trained her 
herself and had not left her to servants. With 
all her teaching she had kept Betty a healthy, 
romping girl, inducing her only to curb the 
quick temper that is supposed to be the con- 
comitant of red hair, and rejoicing always in 
her daughter's warm heart. 

Mrs. McKenzie was deep in thought, but at 
last she said, "We will have to ask father, but 
I'm sure he will consent; we simply cannot let 
any human beings starve whom we can save!" 
Then she let her usual reserve go, for she was 
very sad and tired. "I wonder all the time how 
it will end. Here is your father working him- 
self to death, and every morning when I say 
good-bye to him, I ask mjj-self, will he come 
back to-night? If the Chinese were not the 
most patient people in the world, they would 
rise up and demand food of those in authority, 
and would wreck everything until they were 
given rice. There is no telling where they 
would stop." 

Betty looked at her mother in surprise, for 
she was always so bright and cheerful. If she 
gave way, things must be black indeed. How- 
ever, she had won her victory, for she knew her 
father well enough to realise that he would 



116 FOREIGN MAGIC 

not place obstacles in her way — as her brothers 
often said, "What mother says goes." 

Soon all was arranged; the women from the 
immediate neighbourhood whom Mrs. McKen- 
zie had seen were to be allowed to bring their 
babies to the compound and the next morning 
was set for their first visit. The supply of con- 
densed milk sent on the relief ship from Amer- 
ica was brought out, as there would not be 
enough cow's milk to go around. 

Betty arose with the roosters ; there were no 
larks in that city to rise with, but there was 
plenty of poultry. Prompt as she was, she 
could not out-distance the first eager woman 
who, with the Chinese idea of time, arrived at 
the earliest peep of the sun. Betty kept her 
waiting in the gate-house until she was entirely 
ready and need not be flurried ; then with a nod 
from her, Lao Wong let all the women in. 

They were a motley and miserable crowd, 
and reminded Betty of the creatures of the 
highways and byways, or the scarecrows which 
she had seen in America. Each pitiful figure 
had a scrawny, wizened baby in her arms or led 
one by the hand; and all were wailing with 
hunger. Betty wanted to sit right down and 
cry too, but she knew that would never do, for 
she was there to stop their crying and not to 



BETTY AND THE KIDDIES 117 

add her voice to theirs. In a very business-hke 
way she and her mother went to work; some 
they fed from a bottle, some from a spoon, and 
one little mite from a medicine dropper. It was 
slow work, but Betty said afterwards that she 
was very glad she had nursed her dolls herself 
through the measles and scarlet fever, instead 
of leaving them to trained nurses, for now 
she knew how to handle real babies. 

They could not feed the children and leavie 
the mothers looking like famished dogs, so they 
gave them breakfast also. One poor woman 
looked up with gratitude in her eyes and said, 
"You are so good ; yesterday my husband told 
me that to-morrow I would have to sell my 
baby or throw it away." Making a gesture with 
her arms she added happily, "But I can keep 
her now," and she hugged the baby close. 
It was nearly eleven when the last woman made 
her last deep bow and said her final, "You are 
two good, gracious ladies," and left the now 
empty and quiet compound. 

"I feel as if I ought to soak in disinfectants 
for the rest of the day," laughed Betty. "But 
this has shortened the hours so that I have no 
time. We will begin again at four." 

Every morning and evening throughout the 
winter Betty fed her babies, and little by little 



118 FOREIGN MAGIC 

' ^j 

she had the joy of seeing their wizened faces 
change and brighten, and have them hold out 
chubby arms to her instead of the claw-like 
hands which had so distressed her at first. The 
mothers, too, seemed to love her, and began 
to soften their loud tones and straighten out 
their rough hair and wash their dirty garments. 

When June came Betty was a tired and 
very white-faced little girl, but I doubt if any 
girl in the whole Celestial Empire was as 
happy as she. For the fields were green with a 
harvest that promised plenty for every one for 
the coming year; and on Sunday afternoon, fif- 
teen bright-faced Chinese women who held fif- 
teen plump, smiling babies in their arms, 
walked into Mrs. McKenzie's class. 

*'We have come to hear about the God that 
loves little childi*en," the oldest woman said. 



VIII 

A GONE GOOSE 

THROUGHOUT the long days of July 
and August the low plains of Central 
China lie steaming in the sun; the humidity is 
terribly high and the effect on the human con- 
stitution can be compared only to a vapour bath 
that never ceases day or night. Then, when the 
enervated foreigner feels ready to give up the 
fight for such a weary existence, the climate 
suddenly changes and there follows week after 
week of the most glorious autumn weather to be 
found the wdde world over. 

It was seven of the clock on one of these 
matchless mornings, and Anne Waring, latest 
and rawest recruit to the staff of an inland 
station, was supposed to be hurrying with her 
dressing. The glimpses of Chinese life, which 
she caught from her window through the plum 
trees and over the high compound wall, sadly 
hindered the process. The novelty of seeing so 
many purely domestic rites — fit only for the 
eyes of one's nearest and dearest — performed 

119 



120 FOREIGN MAGIC 

in doorways and streets still fascinated her and 
held her spellbound. She found herself whis- 
pering the words of the nonsense rhyme, "Now 
really, John, what next?" Here a man was 
eating a bowl of rice with noisy enjojTnent, 
handling the chopsticks with a deftness that 
was a fine art ; near him stood a woman scrub- 
bing some garments in a muddy pool ; and next 
to her, her best-hated neighbour was washing 
her face and hands in the same muddy water. 

This was the "simple life" indeed; Charles 
Wagner should have come to China if he 
had wanted to learn its a, b, c's. A voice in the 
hall, and a fragrant whiff of coffee brought the 
dreamer back to herself, and hastily fastening 
the last button and giving an extra pat to her 
rebellious curls, she ran down the stairs. The 
dining-room was a pleasant sight in the morn- 
ing sunlight, with its blue Soochow rug, a few 
well-chosen pictures and the gleaming white 
cloth with a bowl full of late roses in the centre 
of the table. It was homelike and simple too, 
but — oh, the contrast between this simplicity 
and that of the Chinese street! 

Behind the coffee urn sat Miss Matilda Kel- 
logg, known all over the Empire as "Miss 
Matilda," a quiet, well-poised little lady, with 
many virtues, no vices, and a great amount of 



A GONE GOOSE 121 

dignity, as became one who had lived in the 
East for twenty-five years, and was an author- 
ity on matters of Chinese etiquette. Although 
Miss Matilda had no vices, she had one great 
weakness, which she secretly regarded almost 
as a sin; that was her fondness for her old sil- 
ver. It was the only thing of value she had 
brought from America with her, for she was the 
last of her family, and the plate had belonged 
to a Kellogg for nearly one hundred years. 
Whenever the verse was read aloud cormnand- 
ing us to set our affections on things above, and 
the danger of thieves and rust in this world be- 
low. Miss Matilda thought of her silver with 
a pang of conscience, and knew that she had 
not yet been made perfect. 

Anne Waring seated herself at the table 
with a brief, "Good morning." She then pro- 
ceeded to help herself freely to strawberry jam 
from the jar standing temptingly near her, and 
which, like the delectable sweets in Alice in 
Wonderland^ seemed to say, "Eat me." She 
spread her crisp, buttered toast very thickly, 
for she felt that she needed all the sugar and 
spice she could find to make bearable a morn- 
ing spent memorizing Chinese radicals. 

"What makes Following the Procession pant 



122 FOREIGN MAGIC 

■ — ■ .... . — ■■ — — . A 

as if he had been running^ race? It isn't so 
far from the kitchen," she finally inquired. 

"Who? What? Where?" gasped Miss Ma- 
tilla bewildered. 

"AVhy, the new table boy, of course. I call 
him Following the Procession. Dr. Scott as- 
sures me that it is a free translation of his 
name, and I cannot yet pronounce his Chinese 
one." 

Miss Matilda frowned a little; she did not 
like to have the slightest fun poked at anything 
belonging to her beloved Chinese, but her sense 
of humour soon conquered, and she laughingly 
replied, "A most appropriate name; he is just 
the type that would follow a procession to the 
bitter end, regardless of anything else. In fact, 
when I first saw him he was doing that very 
thing; it was the June idol festival, and he was 
one of the most engrossed of a crowd of boys 
who were following in the wake of the Taoist 
priests as they marched from the temple. The 
reason he breathes so hard when he waits on 
the table is that he is afraid of us and our 
strange foreign ways; he does not laiow but 
that at any moment some of the orders we give 
him may bewitch him." 

"All I can say is we will have to have him 
oxygenated if he keeps it up much longer ; he is 



A GONE GOOSE 123 

fairly red in the face and blowing like a j)or- 
poise." After this elegant expression Anne 
Waring turned her attention to her breakfast. 

She was startled out of a reverie by Miss 
Matilda, "Sneak thieves came in last night and 
stole some clothes off the line ; I think we will 
have to buy a goose." 

Anne repressed a flippant desire to say, 
"What is the use of buying a goose when we al- 
ready have Following the Procession?" She 
also wondered what stealing of clothes had to 
do with buying a goose. Her theory was that 
in a new country it was better to "Stop! Look! 
Listen!" rather than to ask too many questions, 
so she kept her curiosity to herself and an- 
swered. 

"What a lark! I suppose we'll have it for 
Christmas ! A goose at Christmas seems so like 
Dickens and Washington Irving, and so 
charmingly Mid- Victorian." The last word 
she added with a wicked little twinkle. 

Miss Matilda shuddered at the "Mid- Vic- 
torian." This latest comer to the station was 
very modern and iconoclastic, she thought, but 
she let it pass. 

"Why, I do not want to eat the goose," she 
explained. "The Chinese use geese instead of 
watch-dogs, because they cackle at the slight- 



124 FOR EIGN MAGIC 

^ — m—. ■■...-.--i-.i, . , 1^ 

est noise, and I thought we might try one. We 
are very unprotected here at the edge of the 
city; they say that there are many brigands 
about this year, as the winter promises to be 
a hard one. The cook and the table boy go 
home at night, and the gatekeeper sleeps like 
the dead, so he is no help." 

"I think it is a perfectly splendid idea; how 
clever you are to think of it, and to use the 
Chinese methods! Only a person who was 
steeped in Cliinese customs would have 
dreamed of such a thing." 

Pleased with Anne's praise, Miss Matilda 
forgave the "]Mid- Victorian" thrust on the 
spot. "She real]}'' does appreciate age and ex- 
perience," she thought. 

At noon when this latest and rawest recruit 
entered the compound gate, she realised that 
JNIiss JMatilda, for all her love of things Chi- 
nese, still trailed clouds of her early New Eng- 
land training behind her. For before Anne's 
astonished eyes appeared the goose, and sure- 
ly no Oriental ever accomplished a purpose as 
quickly as her friend had acquired that bird. 
She stood still at the sight that greeted her. 
Three of the Scott children were chasing the 
goose, which was half running, half flying, 
down the garden walk. Before she could in- 



A GONE GOOSE 125 

terf ere, the scene suddenly changed ; the goose 
turned, and, with loud hisses and out-stretched 
neck, reversed the order of procedure. Quick- 
ly the shouts of glee died away and the chil- 
dren rushed in their terror for the protection 
of the house. 

All day long the thought of her introduc- 
tion to the goose kept Anne amused and cheer- 
ful, and when in the middle of her lesson she 
remembered the sudden flight of the children 
she laughed aloud with no apparent cause. 
The surprise of her dignified Confucian teacher 
was great, although his passive Oriental fea- 
tures did not allow him to show his feelings. 
Returning to his home, however, he remarked 
on the subject to his wife, describing the light 
and frivolous manner of this foreign lady, and 
saying this custom of these foreigners was not 
good; their women should not remain single, 
but should marry and learn the respect that 
was due to the "lords of creation"; of course, 
he did not use that exact expression, but that 
was what he meant. 

In the evening Anne retired early with a 
sense of security unknown before since she had 
arrived to find that Miss Matilda and she were 
to live alone in this strange city, so far from 
beefsteaks, hairpins, electric lights, and many 



126 FOREI GN MAGIC 

thousand other necessities of modern civilisa- 
tion. Was not th^ goose there to protect them, 
and had it not shown that it could make a 
noise? She had scarcely fallen off into her first 
sweet slumber w hen she was aroused by a sud- 
den din in the compound directly below her 
room ; at first she was too sleepy to know what 
was happening; then she realised that it was 
their valiant protector, the goose. Could it be 
frightening away a burglar already? She flew 
to the window to behold the gatekeeper's 
sturdy figure trudging slowly with its accus- 
tomed calm toward the gate-house. Of course, 
so soon the goose could not be expected to 
know the difference between friend and foe, 
but already it had proved itself worthy and 
vigilant. There were other slight alarms be- 
fore she crossed the borderland, but when she 
finall}^ slept, she slept soundly. 

On the next morning the two friends con- 
gratulated each other on their latest acquisi- 
tion; their work went better all day for the 
feeling of safety they had about the coming 
night. That evening was a repetition of the 
former one; again the gatekeeper came late, 
and again the goose awoke the sleeping Anne. 
This time, however, it took her longer to woo 
cay slumber, but at length it came, but not 



A GONE GOOSE 127 

to linger, alas, for Anne! In the wee small 
hours she was again disturbed by a commotion 
in the compound. It was very dark and cold 
and she hesitated to stir; then she heard 
stealthy footsteps on the stair and she tried to 
reassure herself by thinking it was the loud 
beating of her heart; but, no, they were com- 
ing nearer, they were at her door. She would 
have to scream! She heard Miss Matilda 
open the long French window in her room 
and step out on her porch and then a loud 
pistol shot. Another report followed. Was 
jMiss Matilda killed, or was she doing the 
shooting? She must get up and see, but her 
feet felt like lead and her mouth was so dry 
she could not call. Then, to her infinite relief, 
she heard Miss Matilda's voice in the hall, talk- 
ing apparently to the owner of the footsteps, 
so her courage revived and she opened the 
door. 

"What has happened, and how many rob- 
bers did you kill?" she cried. 

Before her stood Miss Matilda and Chang 
Dah Mah, the aniahj looking very sheepish. 

*'It is all right, Chang Dah Mah has no 
clock, and though it is still dark, she thought 
it was time to get up, so she began to dress. 
The goose probably heard her and started to 



128 FOREIGN MAGIC 

cackle, so I went out on the balcony and fired 
off my pistol, just to let anj^ would-be burglars 
know that we were prepared." 

"What time is it?" asked poor Anne weakly. 

"Just two o'clock, and we must be off to bed 
or we will be all worn out to-morrow." With 
these sensible words Miss Matilda disappeared. 

Anne found it hard to catch even a nap after 
this ; she would nearly drop off, when she would 
fancy that she heard a cackle and start up wide 
awake. 

The history of that night was repeated near- 
ly every night thereafter. None passed with- 
out two alarms, and Anne would have hated 
to say how many blank cartridges were fired 
towards the mountain from whence brigands 
were supposed to come, for ]\Iiss JNIatilda 
would not have acknowledged half of them. 
Chang Dah Mah could never learn the proper 
hour to dress, and often she would be heard 
creeping down the stairs. Aime gradually 
grew braver and, after many false alarms had 
given her confidence, would join in the mid- 
night march to the balcony, searching dark 
corners as valiantly as Miss Matilda, until she 
took so many bad colds that the doctor finally 
ordered her to stay in bed. Their rest was so 
disturbed that she was heard to exclaim, when 



A GONE GOOSE 129 



at a safe distance from Miss Matilda's genteel 
ear, 

"I'd like to wring that fowl's neck." 

One night the climax came; they were 
aroused five different times; five different 
times was the pistol fired off towards the moun- 
tain. Anne thought that really "Following 
the Procession" had some grounds for his fears, 
and that the foreigners and their whole com- 
pound were bewitched. The following night 
they slept the sleep of exhaustion; the gate- 
keeper, the amah. Miss Matilda, Anne War- 
ing, and last and strangest of all the goose — 
none of them stirred. In the morning Anne 
announced, when Miss Matilda had fairly to 
shake her to make her wake up, 

"What a blissful night ! I have had my first 
good sleep in weeks!" 

"And well you may," exclaimed Miss Ma- 
tilda, and Anne saw with surprise that her 
eyes were suspiciously red, "for thieves broke 
in and stole all of my precious silver." 

Anne's face was a study; sorrow for Miss 
INIatilda's loss, dismay that their many vigils 
had been in vain and, above all, a wild desire 
to burst into peals of laughter, gave her a most 
bewildered expression. But this was no time 
for unseemly mirth, and choking back the 



130 FOREIGN MAGIC 

laugh, she set herself to work to comfort Miss 
Matilda. 

The servants one by one were interviewed, 
and all protested the greatest innocence, in-» 
eluding "Following the Procession," and the 
water-coolie. No trace could be found of the 
thief or of the missing silver. The station de- 
cided to take the matter up; there had been 
numerous other thefts recently which had been 
allowed to pass because they disliked to appeal 
to the Yamen, The thieves were becoming 
dangerous, however, and there seemed need 
of a more drastic policy. In a mission station, 
the work of the doctor is best understood and 
appreciated by the Chinese, who give him the 
title of the "Great Man"; so with one consent 
Dr. Scott was chosen as ambassador to the 
official. He sent his large red calling card an 
hour or two before him, announcing his in- 
tention of visiting the magistrate, and followed 
it in due time. 

He was carried by coolies in the best sedan 
chair that the station could boast, and which 
was gay with tassels and curtains. On ap- 
proaching his destination, he was surprised at 
being met by an escort of soldiers with ban- 
ners flying, and when he reached the gates 
they flew open for him without the usual de- 



A GONE GOOSE 131 

• 

lay. On inquiry, he found that a famous gen- 
eral was visiting the official; some of his sol- 
diers and officers had been treated in the doc- 
tor's hospital, and the general was desirous 
of showing his gratitude. This circumstance 
made Dr. Scott's visit seem all the more hope- 
ful. 

It took a good two hours to make all the 
bows, drink all the tea, and ask all the ques- 
tions demanded by Chinese etiquette. Then 
they could come down to earth, and Dr. Scott 
make known his errand. The officials were all 
politeness and distress that this should occur 
in their unworthy town. It would be a simple 
matter to catch the thieves; they would order 
all the pohcemen in town arrested and have 
them beheaded, and the silver would perforce 
immediately be returned. Dr. Scott knew 
enough of Chinese standards of justice to re- 
ahse that they would do just as they had said. 
He replied exactly as you or I would have done 
in the same circumstances, and retired a crest- 
fallen man to report to Miss Matilda. 

That is the reason that Miss Matilda's old 
family plate has given way to the best silver- 
plated, and that with it a most delicious 
Christmas goose was eaten. Fortunately, 
geese know no such nice distinctions, and taste 



132 FOREIGN MAGIC 

equally well from any kind of fork, though 
Miss Matilda declares that to get their best 
flavour, one must use a pair of the finest ebony 
chop-sticks. Anne realised that she ought not 
to venture an opinion until she had been in 
China at least fifteen years, but she knows that 
she never ate a goose with greater relish. Thus 
departed the goose, "Unwept, unhonoured, 
and unsung," and Following the Procession 
picked the bones. 



IX 

I 

THE DEVIOUS WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 

HELEN BRETT was a slave to time 
and she knew it. She had known it for 
five years, and because of this knowledge her 
nerves had begun to give way. She confessed 
to the doctor that the sight of a clock made 
her faint, and when she heard one strike she 
wanted to stop her ears and run. Of course 
she realised that almost all the people that she 
knew were in the same bondage, but as they 
were unconscious slaves, it did not hurt them, 
she reasoned. 

The habit began while she was preparing 
for college. In order to enter Smith when she 
had planned, it was necessary to use every 
minute, and so she had started life with a 
watch in her hand. Helen meant to succeed 
and she had succeeded, and not until she had 
been a professor in one of the leading women's 
colleges for two or three years did it begin to 
dawn upon her that she hated to be efficient; 
that she loathed a schedule, and that a life or- 

133 



134 FOREIGN MAGIC 

dered like a railroad time-table was crushing 
her spirit and ruining her disposition. 

At the pyschological moment came her sab- 
batical year and a letter from Matilda Kellogg 
asking Helen to spend her leave of absence 
in China. At the first paragraph Helen shook 
her head emphatically ; Matilda must certainly 
have lost all that practical common sense for 
which she was famous when they had been 
chums at college, or she would never suggest 
such a weird idea. But when she read further, 
she paused, for the letter ran: 

"If you decide to come, there is one thing I 
must warn you about, for I do not want to get 
you here under false pretences. The Chinese 
have absolutely no idea of time; all hours of 
the day seem equally good to them, and as far 
as they are concerned, the sun and moon stand 
still. I must also admit that we foreigners 
grow careless after a vain effort to try to hustle 
them on our first arrival, and we soon gi'ow al- 
most as tardy in our habits as they are. Know- 
ing that to you punctuality is the greatest hu- 
man virtue, I make this confession; neverthe- 
less I hope you will come." 

On that very evening Helen tore up her 
carefully prepared itinerary for a tour of 
Italy, wherein the arrival and departure of 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 135 

trains was methodically noted, and trabled Ma- 
tilda Kellogg, "Coming on the next steamer." 

On stepping off the launch at Shanghai, the 
first remark Helen made was, "Matilda, I 
have come to China to drift, and I want to do 
the very most unpunctual thing you can think 
of/- 

Matilda wiped a tear away — this seeing her 
first home friend for seven years was home- 
sick work — but in a minute she was laughing 
at Helen's characteristic, business-like direct- 
ness. "If you want to drift, what could be 
better than the house-boat trip to my station 
which I am planning for you? A house-boat, 
next to my cook, is the most unpunctual thing 
in the world." 

Helen found that a house-boat trip required 
much preparation and was not to be under- 
taken lightly and unadvisedly. Nearly a week 
went by before all the necessary purchases for 
a winter in the interior of China could be made. 
When they finally started for the river steam- 
er that was to take them to the mouth of the 
Grand Canal, their rickshas were heaped to 
the gunwales with packages, while the heavy 
freight went on in carts in front of them. They 
made quite an imposing procession. 

"I suppose to-morrow evening we will be 



136 FOREIGN MAGIC 

on our own little boat," said Helen gaily as 
they paced back and forth on the broad decks 
of the steamer. "We get to Ching Kiang 
about noon, do we not?" 

Matilda laughed. "JNIy dear tenderfoot, do 
you think we are in Chicago? Why it will take 
at least a day to negotiate for the house-boat, 
then there is all the freight and coal for the 
winter to get on board. Let me see? This is 
Tuesday; we will be lucky if we get off by 
Friday." 

On Saturday morning Matilda Kellogg 
stated at breakfast that she thought that they 
would be able to sail by ten o'clock. The house- 
boat was all ready except for their personal be- 
longings and the coolies were to come at nine 
o'clock. 

At a quarter after nine Helen descended the 
stairs all dressed and ready and seated herself 
on the trunks standing strapped and waiting 
in the hall, "I am fifteen minutes late. I did 
it on purpose. I really think I am beginning 
to understand their ways. I will just stay here, 
for they can't be long now and they say it is 
always wise to keep one's eyes on one's things," 
she murmured to herself. 

By eleven o'clock her wait had begun to 
grow irksome; so Helen ascended the stairs to 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 137 

her room to see what Matilda was doing. She 
found her friend contentedly rocking back and 
forth and discussing some interesting mission 
problems with her hostess. 

"Why, Matilda, are you not ready? It is 
a quarter after eleven!" she exclaimed re- 
proachfully. 

"Oh, is it; have the coolies come?" Miss Ma- 
tilda asked absent-mindedly. 

"No," replied the hostess, "Jack couldn't get 
the ones we usually employ, so he has gone to 
another hong. It is quite a distance across the 
canal, and they will probably be eating. Then 
thej^ will have to smoke a pipe or two, so you 
might as well make up your minds to stay to 
tiffin." It seemed the only thing to be done, 
so they consented. 

By two o'clock there was a noisy crowd of 
coolies in the compound, and JNIiss Matilda sent 
down word to the kitchen to her cook and amah 
that she was ready to start. But the cook was 
not to be found ; the last seen of him was when 
he had said he was going out on "the street" to 
make some purchases for the trip. After being 
all summer in the mountains with Miss Matil- 
da, his wardrobe he felt had need of replenish- 
ment. There was nothing to do but wait, for 



138 FOREIGN MAGIC 

they could not leave without him and there was 
no way in which he could follow. 

So the afternoon slipped on until half past 
four when Lao Liu, the cook, reappeared, very 
much pleased with himself and the rakish derby 
hat which he had bought. As a sop to Cer- 
berus, he presented a live chicken to Miss Ma- 
tilda, and listened with a placid smile to the 
scolding that she administered, for she was not 
to be placated bj^ the fowl. 

All thought of leaving that day had to be 
abandoned, and as the next day was Sunday, 
they were forced to put off their departure 
until Monday morning. On Saturday night 
as they were about to retire, Helen unfastened 
her wrist-watch with a dramatic gesture and 
handed it to Miss Matilda. "Take it," she said, 
"and bury it in your deepest trunk, for I can 
easily see I will never need it here." 

Strange as it may seem, for China is the land 
of contradictions, at half past eight on Monday 
morning the luggage was ready, the coolies 
collected at the gate, and the cook and amah, 
their arms full of bundles, awaited the word of 
departure. The shock was almost greater than 
Helen could bear, and for the first time in near- 
ly ten years she herself was half an hour late. 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 139 

Her one consolation was that the cure was be- 
ginning to work. 

As they closed the compound gate and 
plunged down the narrow, winding street, 
Helen's heart failed as it had not done since 
she had sighted the low, mud shores of China. 
Heretofore she had travelled in chairs or rick- 
shas and the poverty and dirt had not 
pressed so close upon her; but now she was to 
see things as they were with a vengeance, and 
she was not sure that she was going to like it. It 
was picturesque enough as far as the buildings 
were concerned. The street was so narrow that 
only a ribbon-like strij) of blue sky showed 
above, and the curved roofs, carved doorways, 
and long pendant signs covered with charac- 
ters would rejoice an artist's soul. Helen was 
about to exclaim with pleasure at the sight, 
when her eyes were suddenly called back to 
earth, for she stumbled, and nearly fell head- 
long over a black pig that was lying sprawled 
directly across her path. 

"This is no place for star gazing," chided 
her friend. "You must look where you are go- 
ing or you will land in a mud-hole, and then 
it would take more than Sapolio or Dutch 
Cleanser to make you respectable." 

Helen could hardly repress her disgusf, but 



140 FOREIGN MAGIC 

if Matilda Kellogg, the fastidious, had stood 
it for so many years, she at least would be game 
enough to tolerate it for one. 

*'I do not want to be critical, but it seems 
to me that your coolies and all those others," 
pointing to a group down the street, "are 
rather sketchily clad for weather and decency." 

"Now, Helen," laughed Miss Matilda, "you 
didn't expect Fifth Avenue when you came to 
China, did you? You'll soon get used to such 
little things. I never notice it now, though I 
confess to a turn or two at first. Here, wait 
a minute; I am going to stop and buy some 
turkey red to make some curtains for the house* 
boat. If we cannot be elegant, we may as well 
be cosy." 

Laughing and chatting in this manner, they 
came down to the bank of the canal. Helen 
in truth felt a little like whistling to keep up 
her courage ; this being cut off from one's kind 
and going alone into a not too friendly coun- 
try, she found was a new and far from pleasing 
sensation. 

At this point the canal was very wide, and 
on every hand as far as the eye could see, were 
myriads of boats of every size, from the large, 
stately junk of the official to the tiny, clumsy 
boat of the beggar. 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 141 

"Why, all the world's a boat!" exclaimed 
Helen. "But where is ours and how can we 
possibly reach it?" 

"Way out there! We shall have to cross 
from boat to boat with narrow boards as gang- 
ways stretched across. It really is a little dan- 
gerous," Miss Matilda added anxiously, "for 
they do sometimes go over, and the current 
just here is swift." 

"Let's ask Lao Liu to burn an incense stick 
for us while we are crossing," laughed Helen. 

Miss Matilda did not reply to this sally as 
Helen had expected, but still wore an anxious 
frown. She had seen a man drown at this spot 
on her last trip, and it was no laughing matter; 
but she kept the knowledge of this accident to 
herself. 

By this time everybody in the vicinity who 
had nothing to do, and also many who had been 
busy, began to collect around them. In China 
no one is in such a hurry that he cannot stop, 
look, and listen whenever any new thing ap- 
pears, and nothing is a greater treat than the 
sight of a foreigner. Therefore, the ladies felt 
it better to start at once on their perilous trip. 
Sometimes the board would be as steady as a 
church; sometimes it would nearly turn and 
they would have to jump to make it, and some- 



142 FOREIGN MAGIC 



times there would be no board at all. The on- 
lookers gave them plenty of good advice which 
was Greek to Helen^ but she got on exactly as 
well without it. After a great amount of ex- 
ertion they reached their haven of refuge and 
hastened into the tiny cabin to rest. 

"I never saw so many boats nor so many 
people in my life. There must be a good deal 
of disease among them, isn't there?" asked 
Helen. 

"There is plenty of contagious disease every- 
where in China, and if you are going to worry 
about that you might as well go right home, 
for there is no way of avoiding exposure. That 
boat over there, for instance, has smallpox in 
it. I went the other way on purpose, but it was 
hardly worth while, for probably there was 
some one ill in nearly every one we crossed." 

"Well," said Helen, "now at length we are 
off. I wonder what time it is, and how far we 
will get to-day," and she looked down to the 
place where her wrist-watch used to be. 

"Not so fast, not so fast," replied Miss Ma- 
tilda. "If there is not a favourable wind, and 
the sailors are not disposed, we may not go at 
all to-daj^; besides w^hich the sail has to be 
raised, the incense burned, the firecrackers set 
off, the drum sounded, and, perhaps, a chicken 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 143 

sacrificed before we can start. All the evil 
spirits must be propitiated, or our voyage may 
end in disaster." 

"And you a foreign missionary!" gasped 
her friend. "If there is no v^^ind, why did we 
leave a perfectly good house thus early in the 
morning and hurry down amidst all this dis- 
ease, and these eyes?" She added this as she 
looked up and discovered curious eyes in 
every window. 

"My dear, I do not own this boat, and so 
cannot prevent it; if I tried we would prob- 
ably be mobbed. Anyway, you cannot change 
people's superstitions by force, but only by 
conviction. As for your other question, the 
wind is a good one for all I know to the con- 
trary, and even if it is not, it may change 
at any moment; and in this country if you 
ever want to get anywhere you must be on the 
spot." 

"You are right as always, and I am a very, 
very tender-foot," smiled Helen; "I wanted to 
drift, and drifting let it be." 

Having given orders to sail as soon as possi- 
ble. Miss Matilda started to do the honours of 
their new home. 

"This first cubby hole you enter on leaving 
the bow is the kitchen where Lao Liu holds 



144 FOREIGN MAGIC 

sway, although he does ahnost all the cooking 
on deck over the charcoal brazier. Those 
chickens you see are alive and we are to sub- 
sist on them throughout the trip. Do you 
wonder that they look pensive ? Chinese chick- 
ens are likely to look that way for some rea- 
son." 

"Do you always travel with Lao Liu like 
a sort of human dress suitcase?" asked Helen. 

"Always, he looks after our fifty odd par- 
cels and does the bargaining and the cooking as 
well, for I cannot eat the native food. I pay 
him three dollars a month and he supplies his 
own meals. He is supposed to make a pretty 
good thing of it, and is a dandy as well. Just 
notice the rakish angle of that derby hat that 
we waited all Saturday afternoon for him to 
buy." 

In the cabin the amah had almost settled 
their belongings. Helen now began to see the 
necessity for all the pile of luggage. She 
found that Miss Matilda had to supply every- 
thing: camp cots, bedding, knives, forks, 
plates, tablecloths, towels, wash-basins, and 
many other necessities. No wonder Lao Liu 
was an essential. The cabin was to be their 
bedroom, living- and dining-room, while next 




IX CIIIXA XO OXE IS IN SUCH A HURRY THAT HE CAKNOT 
STOP, LOOK, AXD LISTEN" WHEXEVER ANY NEW TITIXG APPEARS 



A FLEET OF HOUSE -BOATS 
UNDER WAY 




WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 145 



it was a tiny closet which they could use as a 
' dressing-room. 

"Just beyond that thin board partition are 
the quarters of the boatman's family," ex- 
plained ]\Iiss Matilda, as they investigated 
this apartment. "There are many cracks and 
holes in the boards, so I have hung up those 
curtains to keep off the all-pervading eye that 
is ever with us in the Orient." 

Having thoroughly investigated their quar- 
ters, they unpacked the remainder of their 
belongings and settled themselves down in the 
living-room. 

"As I gave you my watch, and said to my- 
self that time was nothing to me, I suppose 
it is inconsistent to state that certain inner 
sjniptoms make me feel that tiffin should be 
prepared," Helen remarked an hour or two 
later. 

Miss Matilda, who had no quarrel with 
time, pulled out her watch and exclaimed, 
"Why, it is a quarter after two, and Lao Liu 
has not begun to get ready. No wonder you 
are hungry!" And she hurried out on deck 
to get things started. 

At three they sat down to a nicely cooked 
meal, and as they did so the beating of a drum 
and the explosion of firecrackers told them 



146 FOREIGN MAGIC 

fc ' ... — - n ,. - . . , 1^ 

that they were finally under way. The breeze 
caught the sail, the water rippled against the 
prow, and they went along merrily for four 
or five li. 

"If this alarming speed keeps up I have 
faith to believe that we will get to Feng Ti Fu 
a week or two before it is time for me to turn 
my face toward home," said Helen laughingly. 

The words were scarcely spoken, when 
there was a grating sound ; then the boat came 
to such a sudden stop that they were almost 
thrown to the floor. Tremendous excitement 
and shouting ensued with a rushing about the 
deck. When the confusion had subsided a 
little they found that they had run on a sand- 
bar and it took nearly an hour to get them off. 
Then, after a good deal of discussion, the 
master of the boat decided to come to anchor 
for the night. There was a curve in the canal 
directly in front of them, and if they went on 
the wind would be dead ahead; and besides, 
a village was at hand which would make a 
protection through the hours of darkness. 
Helen protested mildly that such dillydallying 
was worse than a schedule, but Miss Matilda 
agreed with the boatmen. She knew more of 
the dangers of pirates and bandits than did 
Helen, and did not care to be caught by dark- 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 147 

ness between two villages where they would 
be alone against marauders. 

Very early that evening they retired to bed, 
for a chill had fallen with sunset that made 
the thought of warm blankets welcome. It 
took some time to make everything snug and 
safe, for there were no locks on the doors arid 
they had to be secured by ropes. When Helen 
gathered from a chance remark of Matilda's 
that these precautions were rather needless as 
pirates usually captured the whole boat and 
carried it off, getting rid of the passengers 
in various ways, a distinct shiver went down 
her spine. She did not make any inquiries 
about what these ways were, thinking that 
where ignorance was bad enough, knowledge 
would be even worse. Her great comfort was 
that her friend had taken the trip many times 
and was still alive to be frightened. 

All through the time of her preparations 
she was disturbed by the quarrelling of the 
boat people. The wife of one of the boatmen 
had a red hot temper and her voice was sel- 
dom still, but in the quiet of evening it seemed 
to echo and re-echo through the night. Miss 
Matilda was evidently used to this sort of 
lullaby and soon fell asleep. Not so Helen; 
she twisted and turned and put her hands 



148 FOREIGN MAGIC 

up over her ears without much success until 
the voice stopped. She was just falling into 
her first sweet doze when she was startled 
awake by the sound of scratching on the door 
at her head. She raised herself and peered 
out into the darkness; that surely was the 
scrape of burglars' tools. She waited quietly 
at first, but the noise kept furtively on and 
she felt in a moment that she must scream. 

"Matilda! JMatilda! what is that?" she said 
in a hoarse whisper. 

"What is what?" came the sleepy answer. 

"That scraping sound; do you not hear it?" 

Then there was a scream and Matilda 
bounded from her bed. "Helen, it is a rat; it 
ran right over me." 

The boat was indeed alive with rats. The 
friends scarcely closed their eyes all night, 
for no sooner would they drop off than a rat 
would run up the wall, or drop from the ceil- 
ing to the floor with a thud. Finally, in des- 
peration, JNIatilda arose and searched for some 
mosquito nets tacked on frames; these at 
least would keep the intruders off their faces. 
As the night wore away Helen decided that 
the only blessing she could find in this dis- 
comfort was that to-morrow morning she 
would not need to arise at the first stroke of 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 149! 

> — - -'■■ - ' " '- - - -^ 

seven, breakfast at half after seven, prepare a 
lecture at eight and be in the classroom prompt- 
ly at nine. She could make up all this lost 
sleep with never a pang of conscience. 

Before leaving the village on the next morn- 
ing, they purchased the leanest, hungriest cat 
that they could find. She looked as though it 
would take scores of rats to satisfy her appe- 
tite. She proved a valuable asset and the noc- 
turnal visits of the rats steadily decreased. 

"I wish we could find as successful a cure 
for the boat- woman's voice," Helen remarked 
very often. 

As the days went quietly by this woman 
was the only disturbing element, so to speak, 
for in spite of the fear of pirates, their voy- 
age passed uneventfully. Helen soon grew 
accustomed to the shouts and screams of the 
boatmen as they delivered and executed, or- 
ders ; she found it was their method of letting 
off steam, but she never got over resenting the 
quarrelling of the woman. It was inefficient, 
she felt, as it never seemed to get anywhere. 
In other ways the traveller's education pro- 
gressed rapidly. She was very philosox)hical 
when she heard that the trip would take any- 
where from ten days to three weeks. She 
soon learned the reason of this, for on soma 



150 FOREIGN MAGIC 

» J 

days they sailed many li, and on others the 
wind was contrary and the river they had now 
entered was winding, so that their progress 
scarcely seemed to exceed that of the famous 
tortoise. 

"The turtle eventually arrived, you remem- 
ber," said Miss Matilda, when defending this 
mode of locomotion against the taunts of her 
friend. 

"I have learned a great deal, but I have yet 
to understand the boatmen's mental pro- 
cesses," said Helen one day. "I do not really 
care, because it makes no difference to me 
when we arrive, and I would enjoy another 
month of this care-free existence, but I cannot 
help wondering by what principle they start 
on some mornings at four and work all day 
until six, and on others we weigh anchor at 
nine and tie up by three in the afternoon. Do 
you know?" 

"No; sometimes it's the wind, and some- 
times the desire for sleep, I suppose," said 
Miss Matilda. 

The last day of their voyage seemed to drag 
terribly ; the boatmen simply would not hurry, 
and Miss Matilda, eager to reach her home, 
for once tried to urge them on. All persua- 
sions were useless, and at length she aban- 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 151 

doned the attempt. Though the wind seemed 
propitious, the sailors tied up at a village at 
noon and lay down on their deck to smoke and 
gamble. As was her custom, Miss Matilda 
gathered a few leaflets together and started 
off to talk to the women of a hamlet which 
they saw in the distance. She asked Helen 
to accompany her, but she refused, saying that 
she would take a nap. 

After a quarter of an hour or so Helen 
noticed that the family quarrel that always 
raged while the boat was anchored, was grow- 
ing hotter and hotter, and she tried in vain 
to get some sleep. The people might have 
been in the same room, so plainly could she 
hear them. Then followed a sudden lull for 
a few minutes, and just as she was congratu- 
lating herself that it was all over, there arose 
the most blood-curdling screams from the 
bank. This was too much! The woman was 
surely being murdered, and Helen ran out 
on deck to find a boatman beating his wife's 
head against the river bank. Her hair was 
streaming down her back, her eyes bulging, 
and Helen felt that in a moment all would be 
over. A crowd had collected and were watch- 
ing open-mouthed, but not one finger was 
lifted in the wife's behalf. Helen had not a 



152 FOREIGN MAGIC 

word of Chinese and, of course, the people 
laiew no English; but, lifting her voice as 
loudly as she could, and pointing with an ac- 
cusing hand at the man, she commanded him 
to stop. Something in her manner conveyed 
the meaning her words could not, and in his 
surprise the man let go his hold and the 
woman retreated hastily toward the village. 

Very weak and trembling, for she did not 
know what the crowd might do, Helen retired 
into the cabin. She felt, however, that a 
Carnegie medal was certainly due her for 
saving a human life. When Matilda returned 
she recounted her story with many thrills, but 
Miss Kellogg's reply completely dashed her. 

"I heard the story as I came along. I 
think perhaps you might better have left the 
man alone, for the woman M^anted to go to the 
village to buy opium and he was trying to 
stop her. Now she is gone, and we will have 
to wait for her to return, as it would not do to 
leave her here alone. I am afraid it will be 
impossible now to make Feng Ti Fu to-night. 
I am awfully sorry too, as I am anxious to 
show you my women ; they are so quiet and re- 
fined, a great contrast to this one." 

Helen could not refrain from a laugh at the 
anticlimax to her exploit. "Anyway, I think 



WAYS OF A HOUSE-BOAT 153 

I may consider myself a complete cure," she 
said. ''Think how I would have fretted six 
months ago over this delay, and now the only 
thing I mind is to have disappointed you." 

"It is as well you came this year," her 
friend replied. "Next year the railroad will 
be finished and we will make the trip in ten 
hours instead of three weeks, and you would 
then have to do it all by the time-table." 

On the next morning, with a splendid wind, 
they sailed into view of East and West moun- 
tains, and saw the city of Feng Ti Fu nestled 
at their feet. Then Helen, having mastered 
the lesson that time and house-boats wait for 
everybody, regretfully turned her back on the 
river and went ashore. 

It was on a very similar morning, ten 
months later, that she entered the rocky por- 
tals of San Francisco harbour, and felt another 
pang of regret that this voyage, too, was over 
and her trip to the East nothing but a plea- 
sant memory. All the way across the conti- 
nent, with a superior smile she watched the hur- 
rying crowds. "How little they realise the plea- 
sure of living in their hurry to achieve," she 
thought. "But I can never, never forget." 

On stepping out of the Grand Central Ter- 
minal she saw that the car which she wanted 



154 FOREIGN MAGIC 

was standing nearly half a block away. The 
people who had come off the train started to 
run, and picking up her grip she ran too, and 
while she was climbing on the platform, the 
conductor shouted, "Step lively, please!" 

As Helen seated herself, she looked out of 
the rear door of her trolley to see another car 
which she could have taken standing directly 
behind. By her running she had saved ex- 
actly thirty seconds. When college opened 
that autumn the very first lecture that Helen 
delivered to a class of expectant, eager fresh- 
men, was entitled "The Force of Habit." 



3C 

FOREIGN magic: 
Part I 

IT may as well be admitted in the begin- 
ning that Wang Sao Tze was no angel. 
Her neighbours would say, with a shake of the 
head, when her shrill scoldings disturbed the 
peace of the hamlet, "There is no doubt that 
Wang Sao Tze's pechih (disposition) is very 
bad." Her husband certainly thought so, and 
he had cause to laiow. 

Like many other persons with stormy tem- 
pers, Wang Sao Tze possessed a capable pair 
of hands and a clear brain; therein, perhaps, 
lay the difficulty, for her husband was noto- 
riously weak, and wil^^hout her strong hand at 
the helm the family fortunes would have been 
wrecked long ago. She was decidedly the 
captain of her own soul and of her husband's 
as well, not to mention all the little Wangs. 
The village elders murmured, however, when 

155 



156 FOREIGN MAGIC 

she sought to apply successful home tactics 
to community affairs. 

One morning when the spring wheat in the 
fields surrounding the Twin Dog Village was 
a sea of green, Wang Sao Tze stood in 
her doorway talking to an itinerant quack 
doctor in stentorian tones: "I have taken your 
powdered dragon's bones and your snake 
fangs, and the pain is worse, I tell you; and 
now you want to stick red hot needles into my 
side, which will increase the agony tenfold! 
It is all a game to bleed me of cash, and I 
want no more of you." Turning to the oven, 
she raised a dish of boiling fat and threatened 
to pour its contents over the doctor, who beat 
a hasty but highly strategic retreat down the 
street. 

But Wang Sao Tze was stopped in her 
first impulse of pursuit by a most unexpected 
sight. Coming down the crooked lane, which 
was to the citizens of the hamlet what the 
Champs Elysees is to the Parisians, was a tiny 
procession. In the lead were two leisurely- 
going donkeys carefully watching their steps 
for fear of mud-holes, while a collection of 
shouting boys and barking dogs brought up 
the rear, making themselves generally ob- 
noxious. 



FOREIGN MAGIC 157 

What turned Wang Sao Tze almost to 
stone, however, and froze the torrent of abuse 
on her hps, was the sight of an unmistakably 
foreign woman riding upon the first donkey. 
The fact that she wore a Chinese coat, hat, 
skirt, and shoes, could not disguise from sharp 
hostile eyes that her hair was brown and wavy, 
and her features Occidental. 

Many a time and oft had Wang Sao Tze 
rehearsed to an admiring group of villagers 
what her course of action and conversation 
would be — if screaming at the top of one's 
lungs may be called conversation — should a 
foreigner ever have the hardihood to show 
himself on their streets. That the first visitor 
might be a woman never had occurred to her; 
but there seemed no reason to think that the 
same tactics would not be effectual in this 
case. 

While she was adapting her mental proc- 
esses to meet the new condition, the stranger 
had slipped from her donkey, and, standing 
directly in front of Wang Sao Tze, she made 
a deep bow that could have been learned only 
in China's first circles. In a sweet, low voice, 
without one trace of fear, she inquired: 

"May I ask your honourable name?" 

Startled at being greeted with such perfect 



158 FOREIGN MAGIC 

courtesy, Wang Sao Tze's voice, which had 
been about to scream at a high pitch, "Yang 
Gwie TzeT (Foreign Devil), cracked as she 
tried to lower it to the tone required in polite 
society. 

"My humble name is Wang," she said. 

Perceiving her advantage, the lady began 
to ply her with questions so rapidly that she 
prevented the Chinese woman from putting 
into practice any hostile intent. At last she 
inquired, "Is there no inn in the village where 
I may buy a cup of tea? I have travelled 
many li to-day and have many still to go, and 
I am very thirsty." 

Greatly to her own surprise, and still more 
so to that of her neighbours, who had gathered 
at a safe distance, Wang Sao Tze found her- 
self saying in a voice of honeyed sweetness, 
"If the foreign lady will forgive my great 
presumption, I would ask her to enter my 
unworthy door and drink my tea, though it is 
not fit to offer a great taitai (lady) like your- 
self." 

The house stood in a shabby court and was 
a poor place indeed, with its mud walls and 
straw thatched roof and earthen floor. It had 
no windows and the only air permitted to 
enter came in by way of the open door, or 



FOREIGN MAGIC 159 

f I 

through chinks in the walls. A forlorn dog 
worried a bone in the corner, and a black pig, 
to whom water was an unknown quantity, 
made itself at home in a pile of refuse at one 
end of the court ; while in the other, a donkey 
raised a discordant sound of welcome to his 
comrades in the street. From the beams of 
the ceiling strings of onions, garlic, and other 
vegetables were hung, and dried hams and 
sausages advertised the fact that Wang Sao 
Tze was a thrifty manager of domestic af- 
fairs who looked well to the ways of her house- 
hold. On one side of the room the kitchen 
god held sway, and not far from it was the 
ancestral tablet. Beyond these aids to wor- 
ship there was no attempt at adornment of 
any kind unless a coflfin, which stood in a po- 
sition where the eye fell on it immediately up- 
on entering the door, could be so called. It 
is certainly true that Wang Sao Tze regarded 
this coffin as the apple of her eye, for was 
it not a pleasant reminder that her decent 
burial was assured? Two rude benches, a table, 
and an oven completed the furnishings of the 
interior. 

With an unconscious hospitality that was 
really beautiful, Wang Sao Tze bowed her 
guest to the seat of honour, while the latter, 



160 FOREIGN MAGIC 

after duly protesting her unworthiness, finally 
accepted it. Then Wang Sao Tze, all her 
prejudices forgotten, bestirred herself in the 
preparation of tea, while the staring villagers 
almost asphyxiated the two women by crowd- 
ing around the door, and effectually shutting 
off the sweet May breeze. 

Question after question was poured forth up- 
on the tired traveller, who answered with an 
unending patience. To their great amazement 
her listeners had found out that she had 
reached the marriageable age of thirtj'- without 
accomplishing matrimony, an unheard-of situ- 
ation to their minds. She claimed to have 
come to China to tell them some message of 
good news ; exactly what it was they could not 
understand. And one old dame voiced the 
feelings of all when she exclaimed, "You 
might better far have spent the money on a 
dowry, for I hear it costs at least one hundred 
taels to come from your country, and you 
could have made a fitting marriage with that 
large sum." 

In the street the stranger's donkey boy held 
another audience under his spell by marvel- 
lous accounts of the manners and possessions of 
the foreigners of Feng Ti Fu. The story of 
the wonders lost nothing in the telling, and 




THE POPULAR VEHICLE HOLDS A HOMEAVARD-BOUND PATIENT 
REJOICING IN THE HOSPITAL IVFAGIC 



FOREIGN MAGIC IGl 

as the guest made her final bow of gratitude 
she heard him say, "Oh, yes, he is a very great 
doctor, indeed; he makes the blind to see and 
the lame to walk. And once, they say — it was 
before my tune and I cannot vouch for it my- 
self — he raised a man from the dead." 

At these astounding words Wang Sao Tze 
pricked up her ears, and, turning to the lady, 
asked in an eager whisper, "Is this what he 
says true? Could he cure me too? I have a 
terrible pain in my side which grows worse 
every day. I asked the old quack here to cure 
it, but he is not worth a string of cash" 

"Come to the hospital, Wang Sao Tze; my 
sister is also a doctor there, and between the 
two of them I think that they could help you ; 
but if they cannot, they will tell you truly." 

This was too sudden a step for Wang Sao 
Tze, who a short time ago had only been too 
eager for an opportunity to revile all for- 
eigners. She shook her head. "My husband 
would never allow it," she said, with a sudden 
meekness that would have been very laughable 
to one who knew her well. 

As the foreigner waved a farewell to the 
little group, she said to Wang Sao Tze, "If 
you ever want a friend, come to me, Wang 
Sao Tze." Such kindly words had never fal-> 



162 FOREIGN MAGIC 

len on this woman's ears before, and she re- 
peated them over and over again to herself, 
saying, "I beheve she really meant it; she did 
not say it to be polite." 

For many days thereafter the stranger's 
visit was the wonder of the village, and in the 
warm evenings the women would gather 
about their doors and gossip about this for- 
eigner, who had come to them out of the un- 
known to be so quickly swallowed up again. 
Only Wang Sao Tze listened a little apart, 
thinking of her new friend and pondering 
pleasant words in her heart. 

In the months that followed the harvest was 
garnered, the autumn crops were sown, and 
the village life continued the same routine that 
it had known for the last two thousand years. 
No transformation could be noticed in Wang 
Sao Tze ; in fact, she daily grew more unbear- 
able, and her husband made it a point to ab- 
sent himself as much as possible, although 
one had to go a long distance to get away 
from the sound of her voice when once she 
began her revilings. If by chance in one of 
her rages she started down the street, strong 
men would quail and as quietly as possible 
slink out of her path. 

No one realised, not even she herself, that the 



FOREIGN MAGIC 163 

f I 

increasing pain which she endured was in part 
the cause of her ungovernable temper. Fre- 
quently she thought of the hospital, but al- 
ways she dismissed the idea, for who can mea- 
sure the courage it would take for a woman 
of her condition, who had never been ten li 
away from her own village, to trust herself to 
aliens ? 

At length one day her husband found her 
stretched unconscious on the floor. True, she 
soon regained consciousness, but this attack 
crystallised her resolution ; as soon as she could 
speak, she turned to her husband and weakly 
announced, "I am going to the foreign hos- 
pital at Feng Ti Fu." 

Wang Si Fu fairly gasped with astonish- 
ment; of the many surprises his wife had 
sprung upon him, this was the most startling. 
*'They will cast the evil eye on you and on the 
whole village," he cried, "and what is more, 
it is not fitting, and I will never allow it." 

That was enough for Wang Sao Tze; she 
had meant to throw out the suggestion as a 
feeler, and if her husband had agreed she 
would have let the matter drop. Such oppo- 
sition was not to be submitted to for a mo- 
ment, and she immediately set about prepa- 
rations for her departure. With an absolutely 



164 FOREIGN MAGIC 

un-Oriental swiftness she put her household 
in order. The children were left in the care of 
her daughter-in-law, for she lived on the same 
court and could easily manage both homes. 

On the following morning Wang Sao Tze 
mounted their donkey; her bundle of clothes 
was placed behind her back, and she intimated 
to her husband, who was to lead the steed, that 
she was ready to depart. A few fii'ecrackers 
— ^they were very few — were set off to propi- 
tiate the evil spirits and to ensure a prosper- 
ous journey and a safe return. The donkey 
did not like the noise and started at such a 
brisk trot that Wang Si Fu had difficulty in 
keeping up with him, and this cut off all pos- 
sibility of conversation, which under the cir- 
cumstances was just as well. 

They had made a very early start, and the 
sun had not yet arisen when they were well 
on their road; by ten of the clock the walls of 
Feng Ti Fu came in sight, and at half after 
ten exactly, they drew up at the gate of the 
hospital. Wang Sao Tze was absolutely un- 
moved as far as her outward expression went, 
but Wang Si Fu w^as fairly green with fear; 
he breathed very hard and his hand shook as 
he knocked on the gate at his wife's bidding. 
For now were they not about to enter the 



FOREIGN MAGIC 165 

lion's den indeed, and who knew how soon 
their bones would be ground into fine white 
powder ? 

A bowing gatekeeper threw the door back 
and, after directing Wang Si Fu as to where 
he might take the donkey, he pointed up the 
long stone steps that led to the woman's en- 
trance. Wang Sao Tze wearily followed his 
directions. As she toiled up the steps she 
saw coming out of the hospital a familiar 
form, and recognised the face of the foreign 
lady whom she had seen so many montlis 
before. 

"Oh, Miss Waring, I've come, I've come!" 
she called. For a moment the foreigner hes- 
itated; who was this woman who evidently 
thought that her whole happiness was bound 
up in the fact that she had come to the hos- 
pital? Then she recognised Wang Sao Tze's 
forceful features, and going eagerly forward, 
she joyfully cried, "I am glad that you 
wanted a friend, Wang Sao Tze, and came 
to find me." From that moment she captured 
Wang Sao Tze's heart, and banished her fear 
entirely. 

In Anne Waring's company the dreaded 
examination was easy, and when the doctor 
announced that her case was serious but cur- 



166 FOREIGN MAGIC 

I- I 

able, requiring, however, an operation and sev- 
eral weeks and perhaps months of treatment, 
she consented without a word. As briefly as 
need be she ordered her husband home, saying 
he could expect her when he saw her. 

For the first day or two all went merrily, 
everything was so new and strange and com- 
fortable withal, Wang Sao Tze's temper was 
lulled to sleep, and no one suspected its sharp 
power. Every morning there was a short 
service, and Wang Sao Tze listened as though 
in a daze, although she liked the music and the 
sweet voice of her friend and her winsome 
smile. She was shown a brightly coloured 
picture-card and told she could have it for her 
own if she would learn a verse of a hymn, which 
one of the children in the ward offered to 
teach her. The gay colours seemed to her the 
most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and 
so she eagerly consented. 

One morning, however, in passing her, one 
of the women spilled a bowl of hot tea on 
Wang Sao Tze's card. Then the tempest 
broke; the hospital had never heard anything 
to equal it ; the storm of rage and abuse would 
have been almost artistic had it not been so 
frightful. The whole ward quailed before it; 
dying patients sat up in their beds, while any 



FOREIGN MAGIC 167 

one in her vicinity, who was able to walk, fled. 

The foreigners were sent for, and Wang 
Sao Tze, inwardly pleased at the sensation 
she was causing, and beside herself with rage, 
kept gi'owing more violent every minute. So 
noisy was she that she did not hear a door 
open behind her, and was quite startled when 
a gentle hand was laid on her arm and she 
beheld her foreign friend. This friend's ex- 
pression made Wang Sao Tze stop a moment; 
it was not fear, that she was used to seeing, 
but a look of disappointment and grief, and al- 
most of abhorrence. 

"Wang Sao Tze, be still!" said her friend 
in a firm voice. *'Are you not ashamed to have 
any respectable person hear such vile words? 
How can you bear to have those children 
know that you have those loathsome thoughts? 
lYou will have to go home without being cured, 
for we cannot have such things said here." 

Now, all her life Wang Sao Tze had been 
accustomed to have people cower before her, 
and she considered her rages rather clever. 
To have them spoken of in this way was an 
unpleasant surprise, and she started again, but 
the hand was still firm on her arm. 

"Come with me!" she was commanded, and 
she was pushed into a small room. 



168 FOREIGN MAGIC 



"I shall lock you in here until you are your- 
self again; remember the way you are acting 
is not the custom here, and you are losing 
face." 

Then seven other demons more dreadful 
than the first seemed to enter into Wang Sao 
Tze. That she, the autocrat of her home, nay 
of the whole village, should be treated like a 
naughty child was unbearable. She beat her 
head against the wall and tore her hair, while 
her voice rose and fell, and all the time the 
still small voice of shame kept whispering in 
her heart. Like her native typhoon the storm 
raged all that day; it was unbelievable that 
any human frame could keep it up so steadily. 
But, like the wind of the tempest, her voice 
began to die down at sunset, and when the 
doctor made her evening rounds the noise had 
ceased and she found Wang Sao Tze lying fast 
asleep from utter exhaustion. Tenderly they 
lifted her upon her bed, but she never stirred. 

When Wang Sao Tze awoke the next 
morning she found herself gazing into the sad 
eyes of her friend. For a moment she felt in- 
clined to scream again, but something in their 
steady depths held her quiet, and she sullenly 
turned her face to the wall. 

The soft voice spoke in words that she alone 



FOREIGN M AGIC 169 

could hear, "Wang Sao Tze, I am still your 
friend; if you want me, send for me." Then 
she moved quietly away. 

The next few days were hard enough for 
Wang Sao Tze; she found that Miss Waring 
had spoken only too truly when she said that 
she had lost face. Women she had been friend- 
ly with, and who had done her many kind- 
nesses, shunned her or cast scornful glances 
in her direction; and, hardest of all, the little 
child, of whom she had made a pet, refused to 
come near her, and ran and hid when she ap- 
proached. 

At last she sent for Miss Waring and said, 
"Miss Waring, I do not understand your 
strange foreign ways; in the village all I had 
to do to get what I wanted was to go into a 
rage, and I got it, and the neighbours seemed 
to think it was the proper way, for there the 
woman who raged the longest and loudest 
came out victorious. But here it is different; 
they all seem to despise me. I have lost all 
face ; I might as well go home." 

"Oh, do you not understand? We are try- 
ing to teach you a better way. Love and 
kindness are stronger than all rage, for peo- 
ple will do things for love they would never 
do for anger. I came to China because of 



170 FOREIGN MAGIC 

love for the people, but if I had had hate in 
my heart I should have stayed in my own 
country; so love drew me all these thousands 
of miles. Do you not see when you are angry 
you spoil the spirit of the place, and make it 
like a den of snarling dogs ? Please remember 
also it does you more harm than it can pos- 
sibly do any one else, for it spoils your happi- 
ness." 

"Well, Miss Waring, your ways are very 
strange, and may work here, but you do not 
know our village. I will think over your 
words." 

Shortly after this conversation Wang Sao 
Tze was operated upon, and for several weeks 
was very ill, so that there was no display of 
anger. In her time of weakness she uncon- 
sciously absorbed many a lesson from her for- 
eign friends and from the people in the wards. 
The very gentleness with which the doctor 
dressed her wound was a revelation in kind- 
ness to her. The patience of the nurse, who 
never seemed to tire, and who never said a 
sharp word, no matter how trying the sick 
woman might be, all made her marvel. Now 
Wang Sao Tze was no fool, and by the time 
she was able to crawl around the wards she 



FOREIGN MAGIC 171 

began to realise that there might be something 
in the new ways. 

She knew that without the operation she 
would certainly have died a painful death; 
and if the foreigners could be so amazingly 
clever about illness, why should they not be 
right about this doctrine of love they talked 
so much about? Moreover, the operation re- 
moved the terrible nagging pain from which 
she had suffered so many years, and without 
it she found that she was far less inclined to 
burst into a passion. Do not think that in a 
few short days this woman, who had been sur- 
rounded with the blackest forms of immorality 
and superstition from her earliest childhood, 
was turned at once into a Raphael's cherub, 
for that was far from the case. She had many 
a battle with her old vices, and many a time 
she fell. But gradually, as the weeks went 
by, her nature softened and the hard lines of 
suffering and temper on her face changed, 
and she began to look, as one of the foreign 
children expressed it, "as if a lamp had been 
lighted in her face." 

She was forced to stay in the hospital 
several months for treatment, and as she grew 
stronger she helped with the light work in the 
wards, learning many a lesson about hj^giene 



172 FOREIGN MAGIC 

— ■ ■ 

and cleanliness. She was a good worker and 
quick at her tasks, so that she would have 
plenty of time to sit and pore over a simijle 
reading book. At this she was very much 
slower, but she was eager to learn enough to be 
able to read the story of the JMan who first went 
among poor people, healing their diseases and 
forgiving their bad tempers, "which may have 
been exactly like mine," she often thought. 

One Saturday morning the doctor examined 
her and announced that she was absolutely 
well and might return home on Monday. 
Wang Sao Tze was not too well pleased at 
this; all the joy that she had ever known was 
centred around the hospital, and her face was 
overcast as she went to tell the news and get 
her treasures together. These consisted of a 
collection of picture-cards, together with a 
hymn-book and Testament. Her face was 
anything but a sunbeam for the remainder of 
that day, and when she started for church the 
next morning with her books tied up in a gaily 
coloured handkerchief, she was still the per- 
sonification of gloom. 

It was a matchless winter day with the sky 
an unfathomable blue; the air stirred one's 
pulses and made one glad to be alive. The 
women sat in the transepts and the men in 



FO REIGN MAGIC 173 

' '- "^^^ 

the main aisle of the church. Wang Sao Tze 
enjoyed it all, the beautiful building, the choir, 
and the responses. She had learned that it 
was decidedly not the thing to talk aloud 
throughout the service, or call to an acquaint- 
ance in a distant corner, and she liked the im- 
portance which was attached to one who kept 
newcomers in order. When the Chinese pastor 
arose to preach, she settled herself back with a 
well satisfied air to listen. 

With quiet dignity he read the words, "Go 
home to thy friends and tell them what great 
things the Lord has done for thee and has had 
compassion on thee." Simply he di'ew the pic- 
ture of that scene beside the Galilean lake, 
and of the man who had lately been healed, 
and of the JNIaster's command to him. Skil- 
fully he applied the lesson to these new be- 
lievers in another Oriental land; and they 
seemed to grasp the thought as many a more 
sophisticated audience has failed to do, for all 
eyes were fixed on the preacher's face. Wang 
Sao Tze never stirred until the last hymn was 
sung; then, as one awakened from a trance, 
she turned from the church. 

An hour later Anne Waring was surprised 
by a loud knock at the front door. She opened 
it herself to find Wang Sao Tze standing be- 



174 FOREIGN MAGIC 

fore her. In her hand was a small bundle tied 
in a light blue cotton cloth. Before her friend 
had a chance to speak, Wang Sao Tze said, 
"Well, Miss Waring, I have come to say- 
good-bye, for I'm off." 

"Off where?" exclaimed her startled teacher. 

"Why, home, to be sure, the way the 
preacher said, to tell my friends, of course." 

"But your husband is coming for j^ou to- 
morrow ; why do you not wait for him ? I am 
afraid you will find it too far." 

"If I start now I can reach home by night- 
fall. My husband can call for my things to- 
morrow; and you know, teacher, the preacher 
did not say anything about waiting. He said 
go right home and tell your friends. Of 
course, when I heard that I just had to start. 
I have tarried too long already, but you see I 
did not know." 

After this Anne Waring felt that she could 
not dissuade her, and she bade the woman an 
affectionate farewell. With pity and gladness 
she watched the sturdy figure start off gal- 
lantly to meet the conservatism and persecu- 
tion of a Chinese community single-handed, 
and she made a resolution that the very first 
place she visited on her next itinerating trip 
would be the Twin Dog Village. 



Part II 

In those days of which I write, the Twin 
Dog Village, settled as it was in the midst 
of the most densely populated part of China, 
had nothing to distinguish it from other vil- 
lages. It seemed cut from the same piece of 
cloth as thousands of other hamlets, and 
matched them so exactly that it would be hard 
for a stranger to tell without inquiry whether 
he had reached his destination or had still 
another li of humpy, bumpy by-paths to 
travel. 

There was the usual group of willows shad- 
ing the little collection of cottages, if the mud 
huts that the villagers called homes could be 
dignified by such a name. Beside nearly every 
house or in front of it there was a little pool 
of water. The clay for the w^alls of the dwell- 
ing having been dug therefrom, and the hole 
never having been filled up, water had settled 
in it, thus making a convenient wash-tub in 
which the lady of the mansion could do her 
laundry work. Sometimes fairly large fish 

J75 



I 

might be seen swimming leisurely back and 
forth, and it was considered fine sport by the 
boys of the village to catch the fish in their 
fijigers. In the springtime the chorus of frogs 
from these innumerable ponds made a volume 
of sound that would have driven a neuras- 
thenic mad, but fortunately there are no neur- 
asthenics in a Chinese village. 

At one end of the hamlet was the usual 
village well, and here it was, on a lovely 
spring evening, that three women met, it must 
be admitted, for a little gossip. The willow 
wands over their heads were turning a filmy 
green, and tender little green things were shy- 
ly beginning to peep from the near-by fields, 
while at their feet two unkempt dogs were 
snarling and fighting, but the women's heads 
were too close together to heed such things. 

The oldest one, a toothless crone with a few 
grey hairs brushed over an otherwise bald 
head, was talking, "There is no doubt about it, 
Wang Sao Tze is mad, quite mad. I knew it 
from the moment I first laid eyes on her when 
she returned from the hospital; her face was 
so changed that she looked altogether differ- 
ent. Any one could have told her it was not 
safe to meddle with foreigners, but then she 
always did as she liked, and listened to no ad- 



FOREIGN MAGIC 177 

vice. It is certainly plain that they put for- 
eign magic into her tea and that has turned 
her head. As for me, I would rather bear a 
thousand agonies than go to Feng Ti Fu to 
the hospital." 

"You speak, as always, like the sages," re- 
plied another. "Such new ways are against all 
custom and may bring the evil eye" — here she 
touched a charm — "upon the whole village. 
Do you remember the first evening of her re- 
turn, how she was all smiles and politeness? 
Who ever saw Wang Sao Tze polite before? 
That was not her disposition. Then that night 
she refused to burn incense to the kitchen god 
and all the trouble began. In the whole month 
she has been at home she has only lost her 
temper once, and then she screamed but a 
short hour or two, and old Wang Si Fu does 
not know what to make of it. He actually 
beat her head against the door the other day 
because she insisted that she must soon return 
to Feng Ti Fu for another week of teaching, 
and he said he would kill her first. He is no 
longer afraid of her and comes and goes as he 
pleases." 

The third woman now felt that it was her 
turn to contribute. "Wang Sao Tze may be 
bewitched; I think she is; I hope she stays 



178 FOREIGN MAGIC 

r 3 

so. Never since she came here as a bride has 
the village been such a pleasant place to live 
in. She was always quarrelling, and now we 
have a little peace, I, for one, think Wang 
Si Fu a fool not to know when he is well off." 

"Well," rephed the first, "I might think 
you were right if it were not for the religion 
she talks; evil is sure to befall one who will 
not burn incense to the gods, or go to the 
temple. But her kindness has been great; she 
wanted to sit up all night with De De, my 
grandson, when he was ill and give him some 
foreign drug that she said would heal him, but 
it was too big a risk. We could not allow 
him to take it." 

At this moment the subject of their conver- 
sation appeared at the other end of the village 
street. "There she is now," exclaimed the old 
crone. "See, she has in her hand the book of 
magic from which she is never parted. We 
had better separate quickly before she be- 
witches us, for I have no doubt she knows we 
have been talking about her. People who use 
the black art are very clever." 

Poor Wang Sao Tze's path had been a 
good deal like the country roads around her 
since her return from the hospital at Feng Ti 
Fu; many were the pitfalls laid for her un- 



FOREIGN MAGIC 179 

wary feet, and many the stones over which 
she stumbled. She had left her foreign friends, 
who had given her new life and health, full of 
high hopes of how eagerly she would tell the 
message to her neighbours, and how joyfully 
they would listen, but, instead, she found only 
dull indifference or ignorant prejudice. True, 
tact was not Wang Sao Tze's strong point; 
it never had been, because downright measures 
had always gained what she wanted, and she 
was too old to begin other methods. 

An added difficulty was that Wang Si Fu, 
her husband, had learned the sweets of liberty 
in her prolonged absence, and he was loath to 
return under the bondage that had held him 
for so many years. When she had summarily 
torn down the kitchen idol and the ancestral 
tablet and Wang Si Fu found them in the 
pool outside the house, it was his turn to give 
vent to a fit of temper, and for the first time 
in his married life he had beaten her well. 
Wang Sao Tze's spirit, however, had re- 
mained unbroken; she had learned how to be 
happy and no one could take away the love 
she had for her friends at Feng Ti Fu. 

Another source of joy was her children; for 
now that her manners were more gentle, they 
had ceased to fear her, and they loved to hear 



180 FOREIGN MAGIC 

the stories she had to tell about the foreign, 
children. There was something in her mien 
that drew even the neighbour's children, and 
they would cluster around her whenever their 
parents would permit. She also had put into 
practice some of the laws of neatness, newly 
acquired but very valuable, and her efforts, 
though crude, made her home and children 
seem almost to glow with cleanliness in com- 
parison to those of her neighbours. 

The star of hope that she kept ever burn- 
ing bright before her through all this dis- 
couragement, was the thought of the inquir- 
ers' class that was to be held in two months 
and which she had promised to attend. In 
vain had Wang Si Fu threatened and 
stormed; to every threat she had always re- 
plied, "I am going if I have to crawl on my 
hands and knees." 

On this spring evening Wang Sao Tze was 
particularly down-hearted, for even the little 
children, warned by their elders to avoid her, 
refused to come to hear her recite a hymn that 
had always been a favourite. She saw the 
women at the well quickly depart at her ap- 
proach, and she returned with weary feet to 
her own house and seated herself at the table. 
Then taking out her book, with slowly pointing 



FOREIGN MAGIC 181 

finger she began to read. So interested did she 
become that she did not hear a step behind her, 
and was rudely brought back to her surround- 
ings by a hand snatching at the book and tear-* 
ing it into pieces. 

Wang Si Fu, his face livid with rage, 
shouted to her, "How many times have I for- 
bidden you to read that accursed book? I will 
be obeyed, for the village fathers will turn us 
out and burn our goods if we do not restore 
the gods to their places. They say that you 
are bringing down the wrath of the idols upon 
us all, for there is not a house where they have 
not had some misfortune since your return, 
and it is your evil eye that has done it." 

With great difficulty Wang Sao Tze re- 
strained her rising temper; it would be so 
easy to fell Wang Si Fu with one blow of her 
sturdy fist. Instead, she looked him steadily 
in the eye and said, "I will never put back the 
idols; the true God lives in heaven and these 
hideous idols do not resemble him. They are 
an insult to him." 

Such heresy added fuel to Wang Si Fu's 
rage, and snatching up a knife that lay on the 
table, he stabbed her in the breast. Wang Sao 
Tze dropped like a log at his feet and lay 
there without moving. Terrified by her death- 



182 FOREIG N MAGIC 

— "1 

like appearance, he sprang to the door to call 
for aid. In a moment the room was crowded, 
and the confusion of barking dogs, crying chil- 
dren, and screaming women made hope of re- 
covery seem most doubtful. At length one 
woman with clearer head than the rest man- 
aged to take command. She saw that unless 
the bleeding was stopped Wang Sao Tze 
would die, and so she immediately set about 
trying to staunch the wound. With a certain 
rude skill she went about her work, by apply- 
ing a quantity of dirty rags and cobwebs, 
and by tying up the injured part very tightly, 
she was at length successful in her efforts. 

It was several hours before Wang Sao Tze 
opened her eyes. But at length toward mid- 
night she stirred and lifting her eyelids for a 
moment, she glanced slowly around the room 
as if uncertain where she was, and weakly whis- 
pered, "I still expect to go to Feng Ti Fu," 
and again closed her eyes. 

For the next few days public opinion was 
very much divided in the village. Of course, 
every one admitted that a husband had a per-» 
feet right to do as he liked to his own wife, 
but among certain circles there was a feeling 
that he had gone a little too far. It was really 
a bad policy to kill as frugal and industrious 



FOREIGN MAGIC 183 

1 

a wife as Wang Sao Tze. As for Wang Si 
Fu himself, he had received a fright that 
greatly subdued him. He was not a hard- 
hearted man, only weak, and when he saw 
what he had done, his sudden burst of passion 
ebbed away, and he felt remorseful and un- 
certain what course to pursue. 

In his dilemma he went to the school-teacher, 
a man renowned for wisdom as one having all 
the learning of the sages at his finger tips. 
He was as much at home in the classics of 
Mencius and Confucius as the frogs were in 
their native ponds. He had taken his first 
degree examinations, and in reality he formed 
the court of last appeal in the village. 

It would not be etiquette for Wang Si Fu 
to mention his wife's name to another man, but 
by calling her "she," and a good deal of circum- 
locution, the teacher, who already knew a good 
many facts in the case, was able to guess his 
predicament fairly accurately. 

"Your home has been quite peaceful, and 
well looked after this month, the children 
happy, and the meals tastily cooked, is it not 
so? This change has been pleasant after years 
of storm, has it not?" 

Wang Si Fu was forced to admit that it 
was. 



184 FOREIGN MAGIC 

-— ^ 

"You have saved cash, too, because of this, 
am I right?" 

The seeker for truth consented to this also. 

"Well, the classics tell us, 'A perfectly 
illuminated heart is heaven, a darkened heart 
is hell.' I advise you to let matters drift a 
little. The foreigners' doctrine may have 
something in it, if it teaches peace and dili- 
gence." 

This so exactly fitted in with Wang Si Fu's 
innermost feelings that he was glad to accept 
the suggestion. Still there was one more 
point, "But the village fathers claim that the 
gods are angry and will punish us." 

*'I will talk to the elders," replied the teach- 
er; "the peace of the village is for us to take 
care of; the gods should protect themselves 
if they do not want to be torn down." 

Wang Si Fu returned home greatly heart- 
ened; he could let Wang Sao Tze have her 
own way when she recovered. In the end it 
was much easier. 

After all, the bleeding was the most serious 
part of Wang Sao Tze's injury; the knife had 
escaped the lung, and it was only a matter of 
time for the wound to heal. By all the laws 
of hygiene she should have died of infection 



FOREIGN MAGIC 185 

from the dirty rags, but she was a healthy- 
woman and escaped. 

From this day forward life began to take on 
brighter hues for Wang Sao Tze; the free- 
dom from the petty persecutions of her hus- 
band and her neighbours reacted on her char- 
acter, and she became bright and cheerful. 
Nevertheless, she was greatly astonished one 
morning when Wang Si Fu handed her sev- 
eral dollars and told her that they were to be 
used for her trip to Feng Ti Fu. She showed 
her appreciation by so much industry and 
kindliness that when the day arrived for her 
departure, her family and friends were really 
loath to see her go. On her return she did not 
come empty handed, but brought a goodly 
store of picture postcards, gospels, and other 
things to attract the interest of her humble 
Chinese friends. She presented a copy of the 
gospels to the school-teacher, who seemed very 
glad to get it, and asked many intelligent 
questions about the foreigners, the hospital, 
and particularly about the boys' school. 

"There must be something in it," he said, 
"to make them do these good works. To 
build up character is to acquire merit," and 
he set himself diligently to read the book of 
Matthew. 



186 FOREIGN MAGIC 

Any one who could have seen Wang Sao 
Tze sitting in her doorway at the set of sun 
with a group of village folk around her, would 
easily realise that the New Testament teach- 
ing was not a religion foreign to the Chinese. 
For her methods were a good deal like the 
Master's of old. Looking out on the harvest 
fields, very similar to the fields in Palestine, 
she would tell them of the seed and the sower, 
of the prodigal son — they had several in their 
own village — of the man who fell among 
thieves, and of the woman who lost the coin. 
They could understand, for they seemed pic- 
tures of their own village life, and the Chi- 
nese are accustomed to the story form of teach- 
ing. Wang Si Fu and the teacher would often 
come and listen on the outskirts of the group, 
and the teacher would read a few words from 
his book. 

According to the rules of the church at Feng 
Ti Fu, inquirers must attend at least two in- 
quirers' classes that were held six months 
apart, before they could be admitted. Once or 
twice through the six months, the foreigners 
had been able to come out to the Twin Dog 
Village for a brief visit, and to do a little teach- 
ing, but it was really the efforts and life of 
Wang Sao Tze that made Wang Si Fu and 



FOREIGN MAGIC 187 

the teacher determined to accompany her to 
Feng Ti Fu. 

"Now I know," she joyfully exclaimed, 
"why the preacher told me to come home and 
tell my friends." 

To her this class was all important, for after 
it, if she passed her examination, she would 
become an active member of the church. It 
was a very timorous Wang Sao Tze that 
finally appeared before the session at Feng 
Ti Fu ; she realised her ignorance, and that her 
knowledge could not compare with that of the 
city women who had received daily instruc- 
tion. Very tightly did she clasp the hand of 
Miss Waring as she sat close beside her. 

"Why do you believe the gospel?" she was 
asked. 

"Because Miss Waring says it's true, and 
she has never yet told me an untruth, and be- 
sides any one who knows her must know that 
there is a God just like the one she tells 
about." 

"Do you love God?" 

"How could I not love him after his amaz- 
ing grace in sending Miss Waring so many 
thousand miles to teach me?" 

There were other questions and other an- 
swers wherein love to God and love for Anne 



188 ' FOREI GN MAGIC 

Waring were strangely intermingled, but the 
session voted to accept her, and the following 
Sunday Wang Sao Tze became a member of 
the church at Feng Ti Fu. 

From this day forward the new faith grad- 
ually spread in the village and after two years 
of growth and struggle the foreigners were 
surprised one noon to have the gatekeeper an- 
nounce that some men from the Twin Dog 
Village were outside wishing to speak to them. 
As soon as the greetings were given, the school- 
teacher, who acted as spokesman, said, 

"We have presumed on your honourable pa- 
tience in the past far more than is polite, but 
if you will hear us again, we will try and not 
be long. For many months we have felt that 
we should have a house for the worship of God 
in our village, and to that end we have each 
laid aside what savings we could afford. We 
also promise to contribute enough labour to 
erect a building. We now bring our money 
to you to know if it is sufficient for the pur- 
pose." 

A sum of money was laid on the table. To 
a foreigner it was a paltry sum enough, but 
saved from the sordid poverty of Chinese 
homes it was a fortune indeed. The foreign- 
ers were quite overcome and gladly promised 



FOREIGN MAGIC 189 

that they should have their desire and the men 
returned home, rejoicing, to tell their good 
news. 

Six years have now elapsed since Wang Sao 
Tze took the bit in her teeth and went to the 
hospital at Feng Ti Fu. No longer does the 
Twin Dog Village exactly resemble the neigh- 
bouring villages; it has a character and indi- 
viduality all its own. An unprecedented 
prosperity has set in; gambling, opium smok- 
ing, and other vices have almost disappeared, 
and the money spent on these has been put 
into property and business. The teacher 
studied in the school in the city, and returned 
with a new vision of his profession; the boys 
in the school went to the boarding-school after 
they had learned all that he could teach them; 
there they studied carpentry and other trades, 
and also improved methods of farming. 

As a result, the value of land has advanced 
in the vicinity, and new building is going on 
apace. When one enters the village, the 
streets that were once so full of holes have 
been levelled and some of the ponds filled up. 
The mud walls of the houses no longer gape 
with holes, and the thatch that had such a 
moth-eaten appearance is now kept in order. 
At the doors the women look neat and well 



190 FOREIGN MAGIC 

cared for, and the children are neither so 
ragged nor so dirty. 

Above all, what marks the village from its 
neighbours is the tiny church standing under 
the soft shade of the willows by the cool spring, 
and near it the belfry and the bell, the pride 
of many a heart; while opposite the school- 
house holds its sway. And when the work of 
the day is done, and the labourers turn toward 
home, their faces lighten and their paces 
quicken as they catch sight, perhaps several li 
away, of the bell-tower, for they know that 
near it is shelter, rest, and peace. 

Not long since a carpenter from a neigh- 
bouring town was called by business to the 
hamlet. He walked through it with amaze- 
ment asking, "How is this? What has hap- 
ipened here?" The schoolmaster did the 
honours, explaining the change and general 
prosperity. 

"Do you tell me that the new doctrine did 
all this?" the visitor asked. "Why have I not 
known about it before? Every one told me it 
was to teach men how to die, but instead it 
teaches them how to live." 

To-day, of all the families in the village, 
Wang Sao Tze's is the happiest, for she is 
capable and thrifty, and whatever she does 



FOREIGN MAGIC 191 

seems to prosper. All the military lords of 
creation might talk to her until doomsday 
about the power of force, but Wang Sao Tze 
knows better, for she has tried both love and 
hate and has found from her own experience 
that love is the greatest thing in the world. And 
the universal verdict will surely be that it was 
a fortunate day for the Twin Dog Village 
when the foreigners put magic in Wang Sao 
Tze's tea. 



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